As mentioned above, more accurate field positions are required to accomplish to goals of land managers. Prior to GPS technology, field personnel relied on map reading skills and landmarks in the field to determine location, often times at night or while attacking a fire. Positions were reported in reference to the public land survey system and were generally accurate only to the section level. This proved to be too inaccurate and suppression actions were sometimes inviolation of land use directives (eg. bulldozer lines in sensitive habitats). Presently, all firefighting resources dispatched by CCIFC carry Trimble Scout (Trimble, Sunnyvale, CA) or Magellan (Magellan, San Dimas, CA) GPS units which allow for 100 meter real-time accuracy ninety-five percent of the time with selective availability invoked. This has proven to be accurate enough to establish locations relative to special management areas. More specialized units that are carried by managers in the field include the Rockwell PLGR (Rockwell International Corporation, Cedar Rapids, Iowa) units which enables personnel to calculate acreages in the field and Trimble Geoexplorers which can log files for differential correction. At present, coordinate positions are simply called into dispatch via the agency radio system or cell-phone. The dispatcher then plots these positions in GIS and references them against a number of themes which articulates the appropriate suppression response. The limits of real-time GPS accuracy are always emphasized to managers and field personnel and if a more accurate location is required, differential GPS, military-grade units or even survey-grade GPS will be made available. However, dispatchers are often able to steer field personnel to section corners to establish location by using 7.5' quad digital raster graphics (DRG) as a background GIS theme. Dispatchers can provide a distance and bearing to the corners through the basic tools provided by GIS.
On larger fires, perimeters and areas are recorded using dataloggers and military-grade receivers. In Cedar City, the Trimble Centurion has become the most useful GPS receiver for recording large fire areas. Most large fires (1,000+ acres) are flown with a helicopter to map the perimeter using GPS. The military-grade accuracy (+ or - 16 meters, real-time) is generally sufficient to establish the extent and size of the affected area. Often times these larger fires are flown twice daily to provide fire overhead teams with the information they need to formulate suppression strategies. Base station availability and differential correction can create unnecessary complications to getting updated maps out to incident command posts and military-grade GPS units provide a speedier alternative to postprocessing data. Downloading of data and exporting into GIS formats are quickly accomplished and can even be done in the field through the use of laptop computers running Arcview and GPS postprocessing software. When a final map of the fire is needed, differential GPS can be employed to provide greater accuracy. These final maps are usually used to establish the amount of acres burned by agency jurisdiction and fire suppression costs are shared accordingly. Fire rehabilitation plans and other post-fire analysis efforts also utilize these final GPS maps.
In 1998 all BLM districts will be requested to GPS map all fires over forty acres in size (agency memorandum). This requirement is an attempt to improve the accuracy of the Bureau's fire data. Obviously GPS will be prominent in fire programs across the nation in the near future if not already present.
It has been mentioned that GIS provided CCIFC with the necessary tool for plotting the precise coordinate positions provided by GPS. It also provides a critical tool for consolidating the variety of complex information needed to determine suppression strategies. Text, tabular information, even other digital maps can be linked to GIS points, lines and polygons so that the dispatcher no longer needs to read through lengthy manuals or call in resource advisors (in the middle of the night!) in order to have a good idea of the management objectives in a certain area. Presently, dispatchers need only query an area on the computer screen to see concise instructions on constraints and objectives in a popup window. This has allowed CCIFC to improve the way I it has done business. It has also initiated a standardization process for initial attack dispatching where dispatchers will be able to handle the specific complexities of their individual home units with a standard software package in a standard interface.
GIS has also created the opportunity to use a vast new variety of spatial data where traditionally dispatchers have been limited to the use of hardcopy maps, usually at a small scale. Themes depicting ownership, roads, PLSS lines, wildlife habitats, slope classes, vegetation and fire fuels, zones of modified suppression, among others, are quickly plotted to the computer screen for the dispatcher to reference.
As fire positions are plotted in the GIS, they are stored in a permanent theme which ultimately becomes the spatial database for a fire history. Previously, fire locations were keyboard-entered into a database from a PLSS-referenced position which resulted in many errors in the database. The accuracy gained in positional data will undoubtedly help calibrate wildfire models, which should ultimately improve the safety and efficiency of wildfire suppression.
GIS allows for the easy updating of information. As areas of concern change, a new data theme can be quickly entered into the spatial database whereas wall maps tend to remain static in time (often for a decade or more). Information can be acquired from different agencies or from private companies which help identify what is out in the landscape that can be threatened by fire. Likewise, new data generated from dispatch can be exported electronically if needed. Graphic maps can be transferred by cell-phone to laptop computers in the field showing firefighters their position if they are unable to ascertain it because of darkness or other reasons. These graphics can also clarify their position in relation to areas of special management concern.
Many GIS themes used in dispatch are derived from RS data. Landsat images have been reclassified to depict vegetation cover types. These cover types are used to give fire managers a better idea of fire fuels involved in an incident. Fire behavior, line building rates, firefighter safety, the efficiency of different fire retardents are directly related to vegetation types. Currently, vegetation types are not available across the the CCIFC dispatch area in other than RS-derived products. In the CCIFC, the GAP analysis vegetation layer is used. Despite the coarseness of the minimum mapping unit (100 hectare), this data still provides better information than is otherwise available and it provides it across all juridictional boundaries in a uniform manner. Additionally, other fire fuel themes are being compiled from other RS data. These themes should help wildfire modelling efforts to provide accurate results in areas where on-the-ground vegetation analysis has not occurred.
Digital orthophoto quads (DOQs) will play an important part in wildland dispatching as they become more available. Currently only Washington county in the CCIFC dispatch area has complete DOQ coverage. Fortunately, with the proclamation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in the southern part of the start, more DOQs will soon (summer 1998) become available. The spatial extent of these two data sets are both in the CCIFC dispatching area. What DOQs provide to the fire community is a more current view of improvements, structures, and utility lines, among other features, which are not shown in other GIS layers. This information is critical to the protection of these resources, and resource identification and location will determine, to a large part, the appropriate response to a fire. An issue for stand-alone PC-based GISs will be data storage of DOQs.
The second category of RS products used by the CCIFC is updated imagery available on the Internet. Weather maps provide critical information that may determine the type and intensity of response or even the prepositioning of firefighting resources. Vegetation greeness imagery is also important to fire managers. This imagery identifies areas of drought and may even determine whether extra funding and manpower are provided to individual districts in anticipation of a bad fire season.
Additional to the two main types of RS products listed above, there are miscellaneous other products being used. Infra-red photo interpretation is routinely used in large fire situations. This is used in conjunction with GPS and GIS is providing fire management with better information about fire spread and location of hot spots. Digital cameras are yet another tool that is now used to provide size-up information. These digital photographs can be quickly and easily downloaded into a GIS and linked to a point recorded by GPS. This information helps identifiy concerns such as cabins and other structures which might be unknown to fire managers and can be presented during overhead team briefings in a timely manner.