Socioeconomic impacts of the NASA RECOVER decision support system for wildfire emergency response planning

William Toombs; Keith Weber; Tesa Stegner; John L. Schnase; Eric Lindquist; Frances Lippitt

Treesearch

Socioeconomic impacts of the NASA RECOVER decision support system for wildfire emergency response planning

Informally Refereed

Authors:

William Toombs, Keith Weber, Tesa Stegner, John L. Schnase, Eric Lindquist, Frances Lippitt

Year:

2020

Type:

Proceedings - Paper

Station:

Rocky Mountain Research Station

Source:

In: Hood, Sharon M.; Drury, Stacy; Steelman, Toddi; Steffens, Ron, [eds.]. Proceedings of the Fire Continuum-Preparing for the future of wildland fire; 2018 May 21-24; Missoula, MT. Proceedings RMRS-P-78. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 206-218.

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Abstract

Rehabilitation Capability Convergence for Ecosystem Recovery (RECOVER) postfire decision support system is a server-based application designed to rapidly provide land managers with the information needed to develop a comprehensive rehabilitation plan. This study evaluated the efficacy of RECOVER through structured interviews with land managers (n = 20) who used RECOVER and were responsible for postfire rehabilitation efforts on over 715,000 ha of fire-affected lands. Although the benefit of better-informed decisions is difficult to quantify, the results of this study illustrate that RECOVER’s decision support capabilities provided information to land managers that either validated or altered their decisions on postfire treatments. Savings from streamlining data collection were estimated at over US $1.2 million and nearly 800 hours of staff time, and communication within an agency and with local stakeholders and partnering agencies was improved.

Parent Publication

Proceedings of the Fire Continuum-Preparing for the future of wildland fire; 2018 May 21-24; Missoula, MT

Keywords

GIS, land management, postfire recovery, uncertainty, value of information, wildfire policy

Citation

Toombs, William; Weber, Keith; Stegner, Tesa; Schnase, John L.; Lindquist, Eric; Lippitt, Frances. 2020. Socioeconomic impacts of the NASA RECOVER decision support system for wildfire emergency response planning. In: Hood, Sharon M.; Drury, Stacy; Steelman, Toddi; Steffens, Ron, [eds.]. Proceedings of the Fire Continuum-Preparing for the future of wildland fire; 2018 May 21-24; Missoula, MT. Proceedings RMRS-P-78. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 206-218.