April 2008

Fire Program Analysis (FPA) is still on schedule to release the new system June 30, 2008. The FPA system has been on a compressed development schedule since July 2007. Since January, delays in the delivery of software have reduced the time available to test the full functionality of the system prior to the June 30 release. Consequently, the nationwide release of the full system is being done in phases to allow “early-adopters” and prototype FPUs to “pressure test” the system for six weeks while all other FPUs begin data entry.

Current Topics:

FPA's on Schedule
Is your FPU an
     Early-Adopter?
Early-Adopter Benefits
 LANDFIRE Rapid      Refresh
Agency Direction
Updated Terminology
What's Next?

For more information visit http://fpa.nifc.gov
or call Venetia Gempler
208-947-3786

 

Fire Program Analysis

Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system is a common interagency decision support tool for wildland fire planning and budgeting.
This tool will enable wildland fire managers in the five federal land management agencies to plan jointly.

 

 

The Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) is a cooperative interagency organization dedicated to achieving consistent implementation of the goals, actions, and policies in the National Fire Plan and the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. The Council provides leadership and oversight to ensure policy coordination, accountability, and effective implementation of the National Fire Plan and the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy.


The FPA System:
 will be designed to encourage state, local, and tribal agency participation.
incorporates geospatial data which provide the means to map levels of wildland fire risk on lands across the country.
 generates outcomes from fire planning units that
provide information to the national budget planning process.
 will provide a way for land managers to compare
trade-offs between wildland fire program components.
 is a tool to ensure wildland fire management actions help meet performance measures outlined in the 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy.

Is your Fire Planning Unit (FPU) a good candidate to be an early-adopter? Early-adopters are FPUs that will begin using the FPA system shortly after June 30, 2008. Their purpose is to explore the FPA system, develop their investment alternatives, and "pressure test" the system to provide feedback to the FPA Team. The improvements early-adopters recommend will reduce the need for modifications to the system during the first year

FPA project staff are working with the Geographic Area Leads to identify and encourage early use of the system. Characteristics of early-adopter FPUs who will test the FPA system function and user interface between June 30 and August 15 include:

  • FPUs in the geographic areas without an FPA prototype
  • Staff willing and available to interact with FPA to assess the FPA system
  • A range of workload and resource complexities (e.g. very few fires and resources to high number of annual ignitions with many resources, FPUs that contract for initial response)
  • Represent one of each of the enterprise fuel model data source used by FPA
  • FPUs where LANDFIRE rapid refresh will be complete by May 22, 2008
  • FPUs with accurate large fire perimeters for the last 10-20 years (to validate large fire burn probabilities)
  • FPUs with line officer support and an understanding of FPA’s expectations of early-adopter FPUs
  • FPUs with nonfederal participation that includes fire protection responsibilities and initial response resources

Why consider being an early-adopter?

  • FPUs becoming early-adopters will develop close partnerships with the FPA team as they design their investment alternatives and do their analyses prior to August 15.
  • By starting early, FPUs will have more time to complete FPA analyses.
  • Early-adopter FPUs will also help the FPA team identify additional reports and displays specific to FPUs.

LANDFIRE Rapid Refresh

Through the Rapid Refresh, mapping zones associated with eleven western states will be updated by June 2008. The data, like that of LANDFIRE National, will continue to be processed by mapping zone. The Southwest and Great Basin geographic areas have been completed and were delivered to FPA the end of April. For information related to LANDFIRE's Rapid Refresh process visit: http://www.landfire.gov/schedule_updatedproducts.php

Click here to see FPA's surface fuel model data availability schedule, including LANDFIRE, Southern Risk Assessment, and FPA's Fuel Model Probability Project

Agency Direction on FPA

Each of the five Federal agencies partnering to develop and use FPA will be issuing memos through their standard agency communications channels relative to FPA"s June release and the field's use of the system. A ListServ announcement will be posted when the memos are released. To sign up for the FPA ListServ alerts, go to http://www.fpa.nifc.gov/Listserv/Listserv.html

Updated Terminology

  • The term "FPA FSPro" has been simplified to "FSim" to distinguish it more clearly from the single fire approach to modeling used in the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS). Remember, FSim refers to the modeling of multiple fires over an extended period to determine the burn probability and flame lengths of large fires. FSim is used in a series of five large fire simulations that measures the unique relationships between fuels, topography, weather, fuels treatments, and the impact of suppression activities within each FPU. Note: The December newsletter will not be updated to reflect the new terminology but all subsequent FPA documents will use FSim to refer to the large fire simulation runs used to create the large fire statistical predictor for each FPU.

What's Next?

  • May 6 - 8: California Geographic Area FPA Orientation Workshop (Sacramento)
  • May 5 - 6: Southwest Geographic Area FPA Orientation Workshop (Albuquerque)
  • May 7 - 8 Southwest Geographic Area FPA Orientation Workshop (Phoenix)
  • May 13 - 15: Northern Rockies Geographic Area FPA Orientation Workshop (Bozeman)
  • May 22: Executive Oversight Group meeting