Chapter 3. Indexing Colorado Watersheds to Risk of Wildfire

We utilized 10 years of fire data from the Colorado Fire Project, in connection with several GIS databases, to illustrate a method of assigning large-wildfire risk indices to the watersheds of the mountainous western side of Colorado. This was done to identify high-risk areas so that other working g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of sustainable forestry 2000-01, Vol.11 (1-2), p.35-55
Main Authors: Neuenschwander, Leon F., Menakis, James P., Miller, Melanie, Sampson, R. Neil, Hardy, Colin, Averill, Bob, Mask, Roy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
geographic information system
hazard-risk assessment
risk assessment
Wildfire
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Summary:We utilized 10 years of fire data from the Colorado Fire Project, in connection with several GIS databases, to illustrate a method of assigning large-wildfire risk indices to the watersheds of the mountainous western side of Colorado. This was done to identify high-risk areas so that other working groups could utilize wildfire locations, sizes, probabilities, and probable effects as a basis for indexing the risks posed to environmental and cultural resources in the State. The basic questions were: (1) where are large wildfires most likely to be experienced in the future, and (2) what kinds of effects might such fires cause? With the data and time available, we are able to answer those questions in a static manner, identifying three regions of the state where clusters of watersheds share higher wildfire risks than elsewhere. We can give general levels of impact on the basis of vegetation types and fuel models, but further detail in the geographic data, vegetative conditions, and the fire weather during the major fire season would move the model from static to dynamic, making it more useful as a decision making tool.
ISSN:1054-9811
1540-756X
DOI:10.1300/J091v11n01_03