Analysis Ecosystem for Fire, Fuels, and Vegetation Management

The Analysis Ecosystem for Fire, Fuels, and Vegetation Management is an integrated system for modeling forest stands with fuels at a landscape scale. The workflow uses spatial forest structure data from TreeMap and fuels data from FuelMap in the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) to create measurable scenarios that help compare the results of land management activities and alternatives. This process can be used to explore the effects of fuel treatments and prescribed fire, estimate carbon loss and smoke emissions from fires of different intensities, consider post-fire conditions under different treatment scenarios, and more. Users can explore scenarios in rangelands using the Spatial First Order Fire Effects Model (SpatialFOFEM).

Data Inputs

The first step to using the Analysis Ecosystem workflow is defining your analysis area. The workflow can be used at scales ranging from the project level to the continental United States. Users will then download the data inputs for their project area, including TreeMap to describe forest attributes and FuelMap to describe surface fuels.

• TreeMap data can be downloaded from the TreeMap Explorer, the FSGeodata Clearinghouse, the Research Data Archive, or Google Earth Engine. TreeMap data for the continental United States is available circa 2014, 2016, 2020, and 2022 landscapes. TreeMap data circa 2008 is available for the western United States only.
• FuelMap is available in the Research Data Archive, circa 2014, 2020 and 2022.

Both TreeMap and FuelMap take detailed measurements from plots measured by Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) and use machine learning to assign those values across the landscape. Each 30x30 meter pixel in the TreeMap dataset has an ID that links it to the most similar FIA plot based on its topographic, vegetation, biophysical, and disturbance properties. FuelMap uses the same methods to model the mass of various surface fuels across the continental United States, also at a 30-meter resolution. 

Rangeland biomass and carbon data circa 2014 and 2020 are available at 30-meter resolution in the Research Data Archive. This dataset was modeled based on 1) shrub characteristics including cover, height and type from LANDFIRE and 2) herbaceous biomass (brasses and forbs) using the Rangeland Analysis Platform. Effects of wildfire and smoke emissions can be modeled using this dataset in SpatialFOFEM.

Simulations

Using a list of trees from TreeMap and fuel biomass from FuelMap, the Analysis Ecosystem uses FVS to examine variables such as growth rates, mortality, decay, the impacts of wildfire, and the effects of alternate management actions including mechanical fuel treatment and prescribed fire. Users can also run simulations on rangeland fuels through SpatialFOFEM. Simulations are produced at a stand level and can then be aggregated to projects, national forests, or national scales.

Mapped Outputs

The Analysis Ecosystem generates mapped outputs, including the amount of carbon in forests and expected smoke emissions from forest or rangeland burns. Any variable produced by FVS can be used to create mapped outputs, although users should have expertise in forest characteristics to determine which variables are appropriate to use in this manner. Outputs from different treatment scenarios allow users to compare growth rates, basal area, carbon, post-fire tree mortality, and smoke emissions from fires of different intensities. All outputs are gridded at 30-meter resolution.

Risk Framework

The Analysis Ecosystem can also be leveraged to look at risk from wildfire. The risk framework uses the likelihood of fire, likelihood of various fire intensities, and the susceptibility of vegetation to fire. Within this framework, users can estimate annual risk to live forest carbon and average annual smoke emissions, among other factors. Scenarios can include components of wildfire risk, including burn probability and flame length probability, by combining FVS outputs with outputs from FSim (the Large Fire Simulator).

The analysis ecosystem uses vegetation data and fire probability maps in simulation modeling to generate a wide array of outputs. A risk framework can be leveraged to produce information on expected smoke emissions and impacts to forest and rangeland vegetation.