NWCG data standards provide a specification that enables the common usage of data across wildland fire information systems.
A data standard consists of three parts:
The NWCG Data Administration Working Group has created or proposed the following data standards. Detailed information regarding each final and proposed data standard is available by clicking on the data standard name.
| Status | Name | Description |
| Approved | Country Code | This standard adopts the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard for two-letter country codes. [Last updated: October 2002] |
| Approved | County Code | This standard adopts the Federal Information Process Standards (FIPS) publication 6-4 for representation of counties and equivalent entities as a three-digit code. [Last updated: April 2008] |
| Approved | Date | This data standard specifies a standard format for calendar date. [Last updated: September 2002] |
| Approved | Employment Category | The type of employment appointment or agreement under which a person is hired. [Last updated: May 2004] |
| Approved | Event Kind & Category | This data standard specifies general, high-level codes and descriptions to be used in categorizing the types of incidents and planned events to which the interagency wildland fire community responds. [Last updated: February 2005] |
| Approved | Final Fire Acre Quantity | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for the measure of acres within the final perimeter of a fire. [Last updated: July 2008] |
| Approved | Fire Containment Date & Time | This standard provides a standard format and definition for the date and time a wildfire was declared contained. [Last updated: July 2008] |
| Approved | Fire Control Date & Time | This standard provides a standard format and definition for the date and time a wildfire was declared under control. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Fire Discovery Date & Time | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for the date and time a fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. [Last updated: April 2008] |
| Approved | Fire Initial Action Date & Time | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for the date and time that initial action was taken by the first resources to arrive at a fire. [Last updated: April 2008] |
| Approved | Fire Out Date & Time | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for the date and time when a fire is declared "out". [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Fire Report Approver | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for the name of the person that approved the fire report. [Last updated: April 2008] |
| Approved | Fire Report Provider | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for the name of the person that provided the data for the fire report. [Last updated: April 2008] |
| Approved | Fire Reporting Agency Unit Identifier | This data standard adopts the NWCG Unit Identifier data standard to identify the agency preparing a fire report. [Last updated: April 2008] |
| Approved | Fire Resource Kind, Category & Type | This data standard provides standard formats and definitions for a three-tier classification (kind, category, and type) of operational resources available to respond to a fire. [Last updated: August 2008] |
| Approved | FireCode | This data standard specifies the standard format and rules for FireCode, a code used within the interagency wildland fire community to track and compile cost information for emergency fire suppression expenditures. (Example: K14B) [Last updated: May 2005] |
| Approved | Frequency Use Designator | This data standard provides a standard list of designators for the kind of communications that will occur on an assigned radio frequency. (Example: Command, Tactical, UHF Link, Air-to-Ground FM Tactical, etc.) [Last updated: March 2004] |
| Approved | Geographic Area Code & Name | This data standard provides a code and name for each of the wildland fire geographic areas. (Example: SA = Southern Area) [Last updated: February 2006] |
| Approved | Geographic Area Coordination Center Code & Name | This data standard provides a code and name for each of the wildland fire geographic area coordination centers. (Example: OSCC = Southern California Operations Coordination Center) [Last updated: February 2006] |
| Approved | Geographic Coordinating Area Code & Name | This data standard provides a code and name for each of the wildland fire geographic coordinating areas. (Example: SWA = Southwest Coordinating Area) [Last updated: February 2006] |
| Approved | GIS Data Layer - Daily Fire Perimeter | This data layer standard provides the standard template for storage of fire perimeter polygons representing the daily mapped wildland fire perimeter. [Last updated: February 2006] |
| Approved | GIS Data Layer - Fire History (polygons) | This data layer standard provides the standard template for storage of Fire History polygons representing the final mapped wildland fire perimeter. [Last updated: February 2006] |
| Approved | Incident Name | This data standard provides a standard format for storing the name of an incident. [Last updated: August 2008] |
| Aprpoved | Initial Fire Strategy Designator | This data standard provides a standard format and definition of the fire strategy initially used on a wildland fire. [Last updated: August 2008] |
| Approved | Initial Fire Strategy Met Indicator | This standard provides a standard format for indicating whether the objectives of the initial fire strategy used on a fire were attained. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Initial Response Resource Quantity | This standard provides a standard format and definition for reporting the total number of fire resources (by kind, category, and type) used during initial response. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Land Owner Kind & Category | This standard provides a two-tier classification (kind and category) of land ownership. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Latitude | This standard specifies a standard format for latitude. [Last updated: December 2006] |
| Approved | Local Fire Report Identifier | This standard specifies the standard format and rules for a number or code that uniquely identifies an incident report for a particular reporting unit and a particular calendar year. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Local Incident Identifier | This standard specifies the standard format and rules for a number or code that uniquely identifies an incident for a particular local fire management organization within a particular calendar year. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Longitude | This standard specifies a standard format for longitude. [Last updated: December 2006] |
| Approved | Management Complexity Level Designator | This data standard provides a standard code and definition for identifying the highest management level utilized to manage a wildland fire event. [Last updated: August 2008] |
| Approved | Other Structures Destroyed Quantity | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for reporting the total number of structures, other than residences, destroyed as a result of a fire. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Other Structures Threatened Quantity | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for reporting the total number of structures, other than residences, threatened by a fire. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Point of Origin Accuracy Descriptor | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for describing the methods used to determine the certainty and precision of the fire location at the point of origin. [Last updated: August 2008] |
| Approved | Point of Origin County Code | This data standard adopts the NWCG County Code data standard for identifying the county or equivalent entity at the point of origin of a fire. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Point of Origin Datum | This data standard adopts the proposed NWCG Horizontal Datum data standard for identifying the datum associated with the coordinates of the point of origin of a fire. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Point of Origin Land Owner Kind & Category | This data standard adopts the NWCG Land Owner Kind & Category data standard for identifying the owner at the point of origin at the time of an incident. [Last updated: August 2008] |
| Approved | Point of Origin Latitude | This data standard adopts the NWCG Latitude data standard for identifying the latitude location of the point of origin of a fire. [Last updated: July 2008] |
| Approved | Point of Origin Longitude | This data standard adopts the NWCG Longitude data standard for identifying the longitude location of the point of origin of a fire. [Last updated: July 2008] |
| Approved | Point of Origin Responsible Agency Unit Identifier | This data standard adopts the NWCG Unit Identifier data standard to identify the agency with primary fire protection responsibility at the point of origin of a fire. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Point of Origin State Code | This data standard adopts the NWCG State Code data standard to identify the state or equivalent entity at the point of origin of a fire. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Position Code & Position Title | This data standard provides a code (mnemonic) and title for each position used in incident management response. [Last updated: May 2005] |
| Approved | Prescribed Fire Escape Indicator | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for indicating whether a wildfire resulted from an escaped prescribed fire. [Last updated: April 2008] |
| Approved | Primary Weather Station ID | This data standard adopts the NWCG NFDRS Weather Station Standards six-digit identifiers for identifying the NFDRS weather station best representing weather and climate conditions for an incident site at the time of initial response. [Last updated: April 2008] |
| Approved | Residences Destroyed | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for reporting the total number of residences destroyed, or damaged to an extent requiring rebuilding, as a result of a fire. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Residences Threatened Quantity | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for reporting the total number of residences threatened by the fire. [Last updated: July 2008] |
| Approved | Special Land Designator | This data standard provides a standard format and definitions for identifying officially designated special land types within a fire perimeter. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | State and Land Owner Final Fire Acre Quantity | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for the measure of acres of land belonging to a specified owner within a fire perimeter within a state. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | State Code | This standard adopts the two-letter state alphabetic codes in Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) publication 5-2. [Last updated: September 2002] |
| Approved | Time | This standard adopts the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard for representing time of day. [Last updated: April 2008] |
| Approved | Unique Fire Identifier | This data standard provides a standard format and rules for a unique identifier assigned to each wildland fire. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Unique Fire Report Identifier | This data standard provides a standard format and rules for a code that uniquely identifies a particular fire report. [Last updated: June 2008] |
| Approved | Unit Identifier | This data standard specifies the standard format and rules for Unit Identifier, a code used within the wildland fire community to uniquely identify a particular government organizational unit. (Example: ID-BOF = Boise National Forest located in the state of Idaho) [Last updated: February 2005] |
The following data standards have been proposed by the NWCG Data Administration Working Group (DAWG). Comments on the proposed standards should be submitted by the indicated due date. Comments are welcome from any agency or interagency wildland fire group or person.
| Status | Comment Due Date | Name | Description |
| Proposed | March 28, 2008 | GIS Data Layer - Fuels Project Area (polygons) | This data layer standard provides the standard template for storage of fuels project area polygons representing a collection of treatments and activities. A project area is defined by the user but is generally considered to be the area of planning. [Last updated: January 2008] |
| Proposed | March 28, 2008 | GIS Data Layer - Fuels Treatment (polygons) | This data layer standard provides the standard template for storage of fuels treatment polygons representing the tract of land where a unique fuels treatment is accomplished for a particular fiscal year. [Last updated: January 2008] |
| Proposed | May 16, 2008 | Wildland Urban Interface Indicator | This data standard provides a standard format and definition for indicating if the presence of Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) influenced the cost, strategy, or management of a wildfire. [Last updated: April 2008] |
| Status | Name | Description |
| Pending | Fatalities | |
| Pending | Fire Cause Kind & Category | This standard provides a two-tier classification (kind and category) describing the primary source of the fire's ignition. [Last updated: January 2008] |
| Pending | GIS Data Layer - Fire Management Unit | This data layer standard provides the standard template for storage of Fire Management Unit (FMU) polygons representing land management areas. |
| Pending | GIS Data Layer - Fire Management Zone | |
| Pending | Horizontal Datum Code | This standard provides a code and name for each of the point coordinate reference systems used within the interagency wildland fire community. [Last updated: January 2006] |
| Pending | Injuries |
Comments on a proposed or final NWCG data standard may be submitted on a comment sheet available in MS Word format (40 KB) or PDF format (11 KB).
Comments should be submitted to:
Chair, NWCG Data Administration Working Group