Pacific Southwest Research Station 800 Buchanan Street West Annex Building Albany, CA 94710-0011
(510) 559-6300
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Programs and Projects
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(RWU-4402)
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Wildland Fire Management Research, Development, and Application
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The Wildland Fire Management Research, Development, and Application work unit
is primarily located at the Riverside Forest Fire Laboratory in Riverside,
California. It is a research unit of the Pacific Southwest Research Station,
headquartered in Albany, California. The unit and research station are part of the Forest Service,
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Helping Fire and Resource Managers Make Decisions
Fire and resource managers today must attempt to consider an array of resource, environmental, social, political,
economic, and fire behavior parameters when making fire management decisions. Through the use of technology such
as geographic information systems, expert systems, risk analysis, and modeling, we will look at ways to improve the
availability and usefulness of complex data to decision makers. Specifically, we will:
- develop dynamic models for fire growth and fire suppression
effectiveness using complex terrain, weather, and fuels data.
These will help fire managers evaluate how well alternative
fuels management and fire suppression strategies and tactics
meet land and resource management objectives;
- analyze the influence of social and non-commodity values in fire
management decisions and develop methods to integrate their
consideration with market resource values in fire management
benefit-cost and risk analyses;and
- develop ways to use seasonal fire weather forecasts in making
decisions about fire management budgets and allocating
protection forces to maximize regional and national fire program
efficiency.
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Research Emphasis Areas
Developing a Model to Help Minimize Risk to Structures from
Wildland Fires
Houses in areas of flammable wildland fuel are often not located,
constructed, or maintained to minimize the risk of their ignition when
there are wildfires in the surrounding vegetation. In one study, we
are developing a computer model to assess the potential for structures
to ignite from wildland fire. The model is based on specific
characteristics of a site, the surrounding fuels, and the planned or
existing structure. Information from this assessment will help guide
developers and home owners in the construction and maintenance of
fire-safe homes in wildlands and help them mitigate potential
fire-related problems.
Investigating Methods to Forecast Management Impacts
We are also investigating how population growth and changes in land
use patterns will impact fire management. Our objective is to provide
insights into future mitigation needs for zoning, residential
development, fuels management, and fire protection planning.
Fire Weather Predictions
Good fire management planning requires fire weather predictions on several
time scales ranging from hours to months.
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Related Links
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