JFSP Projects in Progress
You may search JFSP Project Information by the following: Project Number, Title, Principal Investigator, Cooperators or key words contained in a brief description of the project.
|
05-4-1-07: Meeting Fire Management Needs for Science Synthesis, Workshops and Online Academic Courses: An Innovative Technology Transfer Approach |
|
|
Alton Campbell |
Other Collaborators: |
|
This project will 1) develop four 400-level, academic, technology transfer courses, 2) deliver each course in a web-enhanced format as part of developing two of them for online delivery, 3) deliver a synthesis of remote measures of active fire and post-fire effects research via peer-reviewed manuscript, user’s workshop, and two user’s guides. The four courses are 1) Science-Based Fuels Management Planning, 2) Assessing Fire Effects and Burn Severity, 3) Fuels Inventory and Mapping, and 4) Remote Sensing of Active Fire and Post-fire Effects. Short courses will be designed to meet the new Interagency Fire Program Management Standards for professional GS-0401 Fire Management Specialist positions. In addition, our research will deliver a refereed review manuscript, extension workshop to assess user’s needs for remote sensing technologies, and two user’s guides that integrate the application of research from multiple sources. |
|
|
05-4-1-08: Cross-Training Professionals on Reducing Property Loss at the Wildland-Urban Interface |
|
|
Anne Fege |
Other Collaborators: |
|
This project will refine the cross-training of professionals to apply current knowledge about wildland-urban interface property loss reduction. Written curriculum will be developed for one-day interdisciplinary workshops on wildfire property loss reduction, using existing materials that are adapted by local professionals and experienced national/regional experts (locals teaching locals). Workshops will be marketed and conducted for a cross-section of professionals, working through local professional associations to promote and provide certification or sponsorship for the training (locals recognizing local experts). Field projects to design and implement survivable space will give practical experience and demonstrate investments for reducing property loss due to wildfires, in cooperation with insurance agents and realtors (locals making local changes). Social marketing principles will be applied, using existing networks and alliances (professional associations) and locally-adapted versions of nationally-developed materials. |
|
|
05-4-1-10: Fuel Treatments and Forest Health: A Film and Interactive DVD |
|
|
Malcolm North |
Other Collaborators: |
|
This project will use a new technology, interactive DVD, to gain the user’s interest, provide a common information portal and a tool for flexible information acquisition. Interactive DVD provides a film, special features for more in-depth information, and an updating website organized as a search platform for targeted information gathering. The film would build on the Teakettle Experiment’s existing outreach and provide information about the different effects of prescribed fire and mechanical thinning on forest ecosystems. When the DVD is inserted in a computer or player it produces a website that allows viewers to play the movie or the special features, search a library of pdfs or link to information that is visually and thematically organized. Current technology would allow the user to click on the apparent website (actually on the DVD) and that would launch the connection to the Internet seamlessly moving from the DVD to websites with more in-depth information. At present much of the fuels treatment literature is dispersed in scientific journals or at disparate individual websites making it difficult to locate, filter and explore. We believe this new technology can help close the information gap between managers, scientists and the public. |
|
|
05-4-1-12: Innovative, 3-D, interactive, and immersive techniques for visualizing, querying, and understanding regional maps of forest vegetation, fuels, and fire risk |
|
|
Janet Ohmann |
Other Collaborators: |
|
This project will develop and apply two innovative tools that will improve capabilities for communication between researchers and managers, and substantially enhance delivery and use of our own and similar research products: (1) a framework for interactive virtual tours of GNN vegetation and fuel maps using gaming technology and tree visualization software; and (2) an interactive web-based query, display, overlay, and analysis tool for GNN maps and underlying inventory data, using map server technology embedded within the virtual environment. The proposed technologies will enable forest and fuel managers and GNN researchers to work collaboratively to improve and understand fuel mapping products through a realistic, immersive visualization. All products (map data integrated within the visualization environment, as well as software) will be documented and made available to users in our study areas and to other interested researchers. |
|
|
05-4-1-14: Field Training Workshops for Demonstrating the Use of the JFSP Sponsored Photo Series and Fuel Characteristic Classification System |
|
|
Roger Ottmar |
Other Collaborators: |
|
The objective of this research project is to conduct six, 3-day regional train the trainer workshops (Alaska, Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Southeast, Midwest/Northeast, and Hawaii) that will bring land managers together and focus on demonstrating the field use of the Photo Series and the Fuel Characteristic Classification System. Each workshop will request approximately 10-15 land managers to attend. The workshop will demonstrate, and expect the user to adequately demonstrate, how to use the photo series by visiting several field sites that will have been ground inventoried for the workshop and used for evaluating the participants abilities. The workshop will also demonstrate how to use the Fuel Characteristic Classification System and how the FCCS National fuelbed parameters compare to real fuels in the field. In addition, the participants will learn how to use the FCCS system to select and customize fuelbeds, calculate fuel characteristics and fire potentials, apply those attributes to the landscape, and use those attributes to assess the landscape for fuel treatment prioritization and fire hazard analysis. |
|
|
05-4-1-16: Geo-Spatial Wildland Management Tool – Cumulative Watershed Effects Extension |
|
|
Chris Renschler |
Other Collaborators: |
|
This proposal seeks continued funding to customize and deliver additional user-requested functionality of our currently JFSP-funded “Geo-Spatial Wildland Management Tool”. Therefore we propose to 1) extend the user-friendly integration of data from agency databases, 2) combine BAER, salvage logging, and fuel management analysis for CWE analysis over longer time periods, and 3) expand the applicability of the tool for multiple or large watersheds up to 5th and 6th level watersheds. In addition to the model documentation, we will also develop appropriate case studies. All products will be available online from at least two public websites. |
|
|
05-4-1-20: Extending the reach of the Fire Effects Planning Framework by taking a critical approach to science delivery and application |
|
|
Anne Black |
Other Collaborators: |
|
We propose to improve the use and acceptance of the Fire Effects Planning Framework (FEPF) by further developing TT materials, to implement these on three different technology transfer/science delivery and application platforms (web, workshop and in-person consultations) and to assess their utility. The principal objectives of this study are to: increase the use of FEPF by expanding the electronic library of descriptive and explanatory materials; increase distribution and awareness by creating a stand-alone, workshop-based training module; and increase the use of FEPF by taking advantage of new, innovative web-based technologies to deliver FEPF training materials and encourage discussion, interaction and improvement of the process. |
|
|
05-4-1-21: Development and Delivery of Version 2 of the Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator |
|
|
Nicholas Crookston |
Other Collaborators: |
|
This project is designed to provide an improved version of the Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FFE-FVS), a program whose original development was largely financed by the JFSP. The program is widely used by JFSP member agencies and several JFSP-sponsored research projects to support analysis at the stand to large landscape spatial scales. New research results are now available that render parts of the model obsolete and experience with the model has clearly demonstrated some parts of the model which need to be improved. While the model currently enjoys wide acceptance among users, they and the stakeholders they serve, have an expectation that these shortcomings will be addressed and the model will contain the best available science. |
|
|
05-4-1-23: BehavePlus and FlamMap Technology Transfer |
|
|
Patricia Andrews |
Other Collaborators: |
|
Development of the BehavePlus fire modeling system and the FlamMap fire behavior analysis and mapping system and supporting technology transfer material was funded in part under JFSP project #98-1-8-02. After successful completion of that project, development of those systems and supporting material has continued under other funding. BehavePlus is used for such applications as prediction of the behavior of an ongoing fire, prescribed fire planning, and fuel hazard assessment. FlamMap is used for landscape fuel and fire potential assessment. Features are being added FlamMap to address questions about fuel treatment placement. FlamMap is being used in JFSP project #01-1-3-21 “Cumulative effects of fuel management on landscape-scale fire behavior and effects.” BehavePlus is part of S490 and other NWCG training courses. FlamMap is included in S493 and has the potential to be a key component of future courses directed to wildland fire and fuel management. A significant amount of technology transfer material has been developed to support these systems. There is a need for additional material to cover expanded capabilities. For BehavePlus we will develop material packaged for presentation by others including a half-day workshop and a 3-day course. Existing tutorials and online help will be updated and improved. A comprehensive fire modeling paper will be written. For FlamMap, online help and tutorials will be developed to describe the new features. A comprehensive paper will be written on FlamMap operation and application. BehavePlus, FlamMap, and FARSITE are related systems. Products produced under this project will strengthen the relationship. |
|
|
05-4-2-03: Expanding FIREHouse (the Northwest Fire Research Clearinghouse) to Alaska |
|
|
Diana Olson |
Other Collaborators: |
|
We propose to expand the Northwest Fire Research Clearinghouse (FIREHouse) (see http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/ fera/firehouse) to include projects relevant specifically to fire management in Alaska. As was originally proposed, the primary focus of FIREHouse has been to provide information about research based in the Northwest. However, there are several JFSP-funded projects focused solely or partly on research in Alaska, as well as numerous other projects funded by other entities, spread out across various agencies (e.g., National Park Service, BLM-Alaska Fire Service, and US Fish and Wildlife Service fire-effects data; the multi-agency Alaska Fire References Database; the interagency FROSTFIRE project; forest health protection projects; fire history projects) that would lend well to online, more centralized access through FIREHouse. Two substantial deliverables included in the proposed expansion are the development of an online map interface displaying fire-effects plot metadata in Alaska, and the advancement of the Alaska Fire Reference Database by converting it into an online, searchable bibliographic database. |
|
|
05-4-2-18: A synthesis of live fuel moisture and wildland fire, and development of a national historical live fuel moisture database |
|
|
Patricia Andrews |
Other Collaborators |
|
Live fuel moisture plays an important role in wildland fire. There is a need for a complete information synthesis on live fuel moisture that fire managers can use in wildland fire planning and implementation activities. And a complete review is needed to identify areas where additional investigations are required. We will prepare a synthesis of available information on live fuel moisture and wildland fire including combustion of live fuel, role of live fuel moisture in existing fire potential and fire behavior models and decision support systems, published observed fuel moisture data and seasonal trends for various species, operational sampling methods and programs, and remote sensing of live fuel moisture and vegetation state. This approach will summarize a wealth of important information into readily-useable references useful to fire managers and to researchers. We will produce two papers from this analysis: a research station publication and a peer-reviewed journal article. An annotated bibliography will be made available on the web, with scanned copies of proceedings and agency papers. We will also parse available historical live fuel moisture datasets into a user-friendly database and make it available through the World Wide Web. |
|
|
05-4-3-06: Modify FOFEM for Use in the Coastal Plain Region of the Southeastern US |
|
|
Geoff Wang |
Other Collaborators: : |
|
Millions of acres of pine dominated forests
are burned each year in the Coastal Plain region |
|
|
05-S-07: Accelerating Adoption of Fire Science and Related Research |
|
|
Jamie Barbour |
|
|
This project will develop a clear understanding of the existing set of inforamtion, tools, and methods generated over the past few years by JFSP, NFP, and CFSR. It will provide a description of the existing fire science delivery network and recommendations on how to improve it. |
|
|
04-4-1-02: Digital Photo Series |
|
|
Clinton Wright |
Other Collaborators: |
|
The Natural Fuels Photo Series, a photo guide designed for field use, is a source of high quality fuels data for a wide variety of forest and range ecosystems throughout the United States. These data were developed for on-the-ground assessments, however, and are not fully utilized in the planning environment. Technological advances since the inception of the original Photo Series projects, coupled with development of new fire- and natural resource-based software applications highlight the need to bring the Photo Series concept into the electronic age. The Digital Photo Series will be a software application that will include a fuels database with a user-friendly interface that will leverage the already high value of the Photo Series data. |
|
|
04-4-1-04: : Development of training resources for application of BlueSkyRAINS in Smoke Management and Fire Operations |
|
|
Jeanne Hoadley |
Other Collaborators: |
|
This project will develop training resources to facilitate application of the BlueSky modeling framework and its Rapid Access Information System (RAINS) to Smoke and Fire Management and Operations. BlueSkyRAINS, developed under the National Fire Plan in cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency, provides real-time predictions of surface smoke concentrations from prescribed fire and wildfire activities. Incident command teams, burn bosses, and air regulators already have begun to use the system to help plan fire operations, assess potential impacts, and negotiate for greater burning opportunities. Unfortunately, the variety of products and impressive capabilities of BlueSkyRAINS remain underutilized. We propose to develop tools that will walk users through on-line tutorials and real-life examples. In addition, we will build on-line help pages to explain specific features of BlueSky, RAINS, and the associated weather products. Finally, we will develop a 2 hour lesson plan to be included in smoke management training. |
|
|
04-4-1-12: Geo-Spatial Wildland Management Tool |
|
|
Chris Renschler University at Buffalo |
Other Collaborators: |
|
The current GeoWEPP spatial erosion modeling tool is showing great promise for applications to Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) erosion analysis, postfire salvage logging analysis, and cumulative watershed effects analysis of fuel management treatments, including thinning and prescribed fire. In BLM and Forest Service workshops in the past year, the current generic GeoWEPP tool has been presented, and users have enthusiastically encouraged us to further develop and refine this tool for fire and fuel management applications. GeoWEPP was used on at least one fire during this past fire season in spite of its generic nature, and we expect to see increasing demand for this new spatial analysis tool in the coming years as increased incidences of wildfires are coincident with increased fuel management activities. To make this promising tool more useful, we propose to customize GeoWEPP specifically for fire and fuel management. We propose to build custom databases, and prepare three custom interfaces in ArcGIS specifically for 1) BAER analysis, 2) salvage logging analysis, and 3) fuel management (mulching, thinning, and prescribed fire) analysis. We will also prepare analysis worksheets and prepare model documentation. All products will be available online from at least two public websites. During the short 18-mn duration of this proposal we will also present the model to potential users at a minimum of four workshops, targeting improvements on feedback received from every workshop. In the year following the completion of this project, we anticipate several peer-review papers on the development, application, and validation of the new tool. We expect that the outcome of this proposal will be improved watershed analysis to support wildfire rehabilitation and fuel management activities. |
|
|
04-4-1-19: Training Package for Land Management Tools Sponsored by the JFSP: Photo Series, FCCS, Consume 3.0, and FEPS |
|
|
Roger D. Ottmar |
Other Collaborators: |
|
Knowing the amount of biomass and other fuel
characteristics, and potential fuel consumption and emissions
production is becoming increasingly important for making informed
decisions on the use of prescribed fire, wildfires and wildland
fire use fires. Consequently the Joint Fire Science Program
funded the development of 4 fuels and fire management tools
that included the Natural Fuels Photo Series, Consume 3.0, Fuel
Characteristic Classification System (FCCS), and the Fire Emissions
Production Simulator (FEPS). Since these tools work in tandem
with each other, a web based tutorial technology transfer package
and a stand alone instructor’s guide and student workbook
on how to use these products needs to be completed. |
|
|
04-4-1-21: A Web-based Information System for Estimating Fuel Characteristics, Fire-Hazard, and Treatment Effectiveness and Costs in Montana and New Mexico |
|
|
Carl Fiedler |
Other Collaborators: |
|
An impressive mix of models, analyses, fuel classifications, and databases has flowed from ongoing JSFP-funded projects. There is now a compelling need to integrate some of these products into tools that allow planners to profile fuel conditions at the strategic level, and allow managers to evaluate hazard reduction treatment effectiveness and cost at the project level. Objectives of this project are to: 1) classify MT and NM’s forestlands into fuel characteristic classes (FCC’s) by forest type, density, and structure; 2) develop an interactive, web-based information system that managers can use to evaluate the effectiveness and costs of hazard reduction treatments, and 3) develop descriptions and computer visualizations of primary forest type/density/structure combinations that will allow users without inventories to estimate FCC’s, fire hazard, and treatment costs for their conditions of interest. Recent completion of Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) inventories for MT and NM, coupled with a fuel characteristic classification system (FCCS), prescription simulation and computational algorithms (UM), and treatment cost/product value models and databases (UM), provide the components for this web-based information system. We will link inventories, computational algorithms, models, and databases so that users can query and retrieve (or calculate) estimates of existing fuel characteristics and associated spread, crowning, and fire effects indexes, and potential effectiveness and costs of hazard reduction treatments. Planners/policy makers will be able to classify fuel characteristics (FCC’s) for strategic planning areas based on FIA inventory data, while managers will be able to estimate hazard indexes and treatment effectiveness and costs based on user-supplied stand-level inventories. Lacking inventory data of any kind, users will be able to develop forest type or stand-level estimates of existing hazard and treatment effectiveness based on descriptions, photographs, or computer visualizations that most closely match their conditions of interest. Finally, users will be able to estimate treatment costs while planning projects at any scale, whether a strategic hazard reduction program, a multiple-unit or stand-level project on federal lands, or a five-acre ranchette in the wildland/urban interface. |
|
|
04-4-1-34: An internet based portal for Fire Science and Management in the Southern Region |
|
|
Penelope Morgan |
Other Collaborators: |
|
The proliferation of fire technology, research, data, and publications across the fire community makes the process of identifying and synthesizing the best available fire science into fire management challenging and sometimes impossible. Even with the increasing ease of delivering valuable tools and information useful for fire planning in digital formats, they exist across dozens of websites and locations. Managers cannot efficiently identify research products, compare them to similar efforts, or determine suitability for their management application. This often leads to ineffective application of research tools and duplication of efforts. We propose to address this issue by developing the Internet based Southern Fire Portal that identifies, acquires, analyzes, synthesizes, packages, and delivers wildland fire data, information, tools, and technologies developed by the JFSP, National Fire Plan, and other key regional products and tools from state agencies, universities, and non-governmental organizations. The Southern Fire Portal boundaries coincide with those for the Southern Geographic Area Coordination Center (GACC). This effort builds on concepts developed through the Fire Research and Management Exchange System (FRAMES), the USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), the Encyclopedia of Southern Fire Science (ESFS), and the Tall Timbers Research Station E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database (TTRS Database). Results will include (1) data and tools (2) metadata, (3) state-of-the-knowledge literature syntheses (4) an index of publications, (5) a fire thesaurus, and (6) a strategy for integrating content. |
|
|
03-4-1-02: An expert system and new web interface for tools on the fire research and management exchange system (FRAMES) |
|
|
Penelope Morgan |
Other Cooperators: |
|
This project will: (1) conduct a workshop with tool users and providers, the information gleaned from the workshop will then be used to (2) develop a tool ID card, (3) an expert rule-based system, and (4) web interface that will help potential tool users navigate to the tool or tools that are applicable, accessible, and comprehensible for their need or needs-to match the right tool with the right job. The 1-yr project will address Task 1 AFP, 2003-4 to “Develop information structures, tools, or decision support systems for accessing, disseminating, and applying wildland fire and fuels research results from Joint Fire Science Program funded investigations and other relevant sources.” |
|
|
03-4-2-03: Completion of Invasive Plant Knowledge Base Summaries for FEIS (the Fire Effects Information System) |
|
|
Jane Kapler Smith |
Other Cooperators: |
|
This proposal addresses Tasks 1 & 2 of Joint Fire Sciences AFP 2003-4: Develop information structures, tools, or decision support systems for accessing, disseminating, and applying wildland fire and fuels research results… Produce readily understandable and useable information synthesis to transfer products on key topics of critical interest. Managers rely on the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS, online at www.fs.fed.us/database/feis) to plan prescribed fires, post fire rehabilitation, ecosystem restoration, and other ecosystem-based management. They need up-to-date information on both native species and nonnative invasive species. In FY2001, the Joint Fire Science Program funded FEIS to add or revise 60 Knowledge Base summaries of nonnative invasive plant species to the system (“Invasive Plant and Fire Interactions: Use of the Fire Effects Information System to Provide Information for Managers,” Project 00-1-2-06). From a list of 156 species nominated for the project by invasive plant coordinators in federal land management agencies and tribes, we selected the 60 species for the project. Unfortunately, the budget for Project 00-1-2-06 is exhausted (May 2003), 32 of the planned 60 summaries. The objective is to write the Knowledge Base summaries, including up-to-date fire/plant information and links to other Internet sites with high-quality information; obtain information and reviews from The Nature Conservancy’s Wildland Invasive Species Team; and put the summaries online. |
|
|
03-4-2-05: Strengthening Application of the Ventilation Climate Information System (VCIS) for Multiple-Scale Planning, Documentation, and Risk Assessment |
|
|
Sue Ferguson |
Other Cooperators: |
|
The Ventilation Climate Information System (VCIS) was completed with Joint Fire Science Program support in 2000 under a 1998-2000 project called, “Assessing Values of Air Quality and Visibility at Risk from Wildland Fires.” It is a twice-daily, 30-year database of surface wind, mixing height, and ventilation potential for the United States at about 5km spatial resolution with an interactive web user interface that allows access to the data and ancillary information in forms of maps and graphs. While VCIS performs well as a regional and national assessment tool, users have suggested a number of ways that it can be improved to better meet such needs as documentation for the National Environment Policy Act (NEPA), programmatic and project planning, and risk assessment at multiple scales. Because VCIS continues to be one of few landscape tools for evaluating and documenting the probability of potential smoke impacts, we propose making the user-identified improvements to the data and web-access system, crate on-line tutorials for specific project tasks such as a documentation, planning, and assessment at local to regional scales, and develop lesson plans and workshops to facilitate training. |
|
|
03-4-2-06: A regional information node for fire science in the Pacific Northwest |
|
|
David Peterson |
Other Cooperators: |
|
We will create a new Web-based node of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) that serves information on fire science and technology developed by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) and National Fire Plan (NFP). The Fire Information and Research Node (FIRENode) will provide one-stop shopping for resource managers, decision makers, scientists, students and local communities who want to examine the results of the current, intensive effort to understand and manage fuels on public lands in the United States. It is critical that fire research programs rapidly make data and associated information available in order to facilitate science-based management and timely solutions for effective large-scale fuel treatments. |
|
|
03-4-2-08: Geomorphic and Watershed Impacts of Wildland Fire - Understanding and Mitigation |
|
|
Thomas Casadevall |
Other Cooperators: |
|
The Geological Society of America (GSA) plans to offer a workshop that transfers scientific research on the geomorphic and watershed impacts of wildland fire to the land management community. The workshop will synthesize current research on geomorphic and watershed effects of wildland fire into a format tailored to the land management community. Case studies, field sessions and hands-on sessions are the primary experiential learning approaches to be used. GSA is cooperating with a select group of partner agencies and associations that are assisting with program design and conference promotion. As a result, the workshop has a strong multi-disciplinary nature that is an outgrowth of the collaborative planning carried out by the agency and non-profit partners. The workshop will present targeted, useful management implications of research that can be immediately applied to assess, evaluate and mitigate or prevent geomorphic and watershed impacts of wildland fire. |
|
