Identifying Fire Risk by Mapping Human Development in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) in the Intermountain West
Additional Funding Sources
This project was made possible by the NSF Idaho EPSCoR Program and by the National Science Foundation under Award No. OIA-1757324.
Presentation Date
7-2020
Abstract
Wildfire processes are being dramatically altered via human expansion into the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). As the risk of wildfire exposure increases, analyzing the spatio-temporal relationship between wildfire regime and human development could create a layer of interaction practical in land management strategies, not only in the Intermountain West, but across the United States. Using QGIS, an open-source platform, we mapped development in the Teton and Owyhee counties of Idaho, which will be used to train satellite-based models of development, resulting in annual WUI maps across the Snake River Plain. The data will later be transcribed into a spatio-temporally explicit analysis of the development with an overlay of fire risk in the area. Through researching the interactions between wildfire and development across the urban-rural continuum, the factors that influence fire adaptation can be isolated and prevention strategies can be streamlined.
Identifying Fire Risk by Mapping Human Development in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) in the Intermountain West
Wildfire processes are being dramatically altered via human expansion into the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). As the risk of wildfire exposure increases, analyzing the spatio-temporal relationship between wildfire regime and human development could create a layer of interaction practical in land management strategies, not only in the Intermountain West, but across the United States. Using QGIS, an open-source platform, we mapped development in the Teton and Owyhee counties of Idaho, which will be used to train satellite-based models of development, resulting in annual WUI maps across the Snake River Plain. The data will later be transcribed into a spatio-temporally explicit analysis of the development with an overlay of fire risk in the area. Through researching the interactions between wildfire and development across the urban-rural continuum, the factors that influence fire adaptation can be isolated and prevention strategies can be streamlined.