LANDFIRE 2016 Remap (LF2.0.0)

LANDFIRE (LF) 2016 Remap (LF 2.0.0) data for the continental United States, Puerto Rico, Alaska, and Hawaii were delivered to WFDSS in 2021. LANDFIRE 2016 Remap (LF2.0.0) is a vegetation and fuels mapping effort to update the base product suite. LF 2016 includes updated base maps for all products based on recent Landsat imagery, lidar data, and field data. It also incorporates landscape change and disturbances, such as wildland fire, fuel and vegetation treatments, insects and disease, storm damage, and invasive plants that occurred in 2015 and 2016.

Data update for Topography per LF 2.2.0 release has been incorporated to reflect a more consistent caclulation of Slope Degree, Slope Percent Rise, Aspect, and Elevation from true north. Please see LANDFIRE Data Alerts .

2022 Capable Fuels

LF 2022 includes adjustments to vegetation and fuels in disturbed areas for disturbances recorded in 2021 and 2022. LF 2022 disturbance layers contain comprehensive polygon treatment data (disturbance events) obtained from national and local sources and fire program data including: Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS), Burned Area Reflectance, Classification (BARC), Rapid Assessment of Vegetation Condition after Wildfire (RAVG)

Disturbances are also identified with LF's remote sensing of landscape change (RSLC), which identifies spectral change in vegetation using automated algorithms and image analyst review of the entire country. Both vegetation cover and height, as well as fuels, will be 2023 capable in disturbed areas. This means that in mapped disturbances, vegetation and fuels represent current year conditions. Transition rulesets for vegetation account for disturbances from 2017 to 2022 since they were designed to use LF 2016 Remap vegetation data as inputs. Fuel updates utilize 2013–2022 disturbances because fuels transition rules encompass ten years of disturbance and can use pre-disturbance fuel inputs.

For more information about LANDFIRE 2022 visit the LANDFIRE homepage.

2020 Capable Fuels

Additionally, LF 2016 applies a new Capable Fuels methodology to ensure that fuels products in disturbed areas reflect vegetation growth after the disturbance and up until the capable year (i.e. 2019 or 2020, rather than 2016). To accomplish this, in areas with disturbance from 2010-2016, fuel models and canopy characteristics were modified to represent post-disturbance recovery between 2016 (when the imagery/data were captured) and 2020 (when it became widely available for use). While users will still need to modify fuels data for disturbances after 2016, this improves performance of fire behavior modeling and reduces the need for analysts to update fuels data to represent current conditions (https://www.landfire.gov/lf_remap.php, https://www.landfire.gov/documents/Summary_LF_capable_fuels.pdf ).

The data update for Topography per the LF 2.2.0 release has been incorporated to reflect a more consistent calculation of Slope Degree, Slope Percent Rise, Aspect, and Elevation from true north. Please see LANDFIRE Data Alerts .

Area Has Disturbance in Year

Action Needed Regarding Fuels

No disturbance

Fuels represent those in 2016. No specific action required, but users should always validate fuels information.

2009 or earlier

Fuels represent those in 2016. LANDFIRE assumes there will be no further change after 2016.

2010 - 2016

Fuels represent simulated post-disturbance regrowth up to 2020. Analysts should validate and update fuels information to account for growth since 2020.

After 2016

Fuels information does not account for these disturbances. Analysts are encouraged to edit fuels data using landscape masks and editing rules.

This data is the default data source used by WFDSS for fire behavior analysis, and when users query fuels and topographic data on incident and intelligence map displays. Users can change the default selection on the Incident Information page, if they choose. If an analyst chooses a different data source for an analysis, the chosen data source would override the incident default data source for that analysis only.

This update includes:

The LF 2016 update also:

The LF 2016 update strategy applies a consistent approach to combine geospatial data depicting areas of disturbance with Remote Sensing of Landscape Change (RSLC) derived data to develop the disturbance layers. Data from combinations of Landsat satellite imagery, fire program data (e.g., Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS)), cooperator-provided field data, and other ancillary data (e.g., Protected Area Database (PAD)) are used to locate and characterize large wildfires.

Landscape Data Introduction

WFDSS uses the aspect, slope, elevation, fuel model, canopy cover, canopy base height (CBH), canopy bulk density (CBD), and stand height layers to a create landscape file that displays fuels, topography and canopy information simultaneously. Landscape data can be viewed for any point on a map display by clicking the Info sub-tab > selecting the I Icon tool > and then clicking on the landscape. The default Landscape Data Source for incidents is the most current source available, but this can be changed for an incident on the Incident Information tab.

Landscape data in WFDSS is sourced from LANDFIRE and a multi-partner wildland fire and wildland fuel mapping project in the state of California. All values are measured with the metric system:

Variable

Unit of Measure

aspect

degrees

slope

degrees

elevation

meters

canopy base height

meters

canopy bulk density

kg/m3

canopy cover

percent

stand height

meters

The California landscape 2010 data set is an annual, multi-partner wildland fire and wildland fuel mapping project within the state of California. The California fuels data are supported by the California Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP), US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service Region 5 Fire and Aviation Management, the US Department of Interior (US DOI) Bureau of Land Management and DOI National Park Service. California fuel data tasks are completed by the USDA Region 5 Remote Sensing Lab.

For more details, got to Landscape Data Source Reference.

Fire Behavior Modeling Considerations

Users need to update fire scars and other disturbances after 2016.