Fire Workload Area Quality Assurance (QA)/Quality Control (QC) Tool is coming!
Every Fire Planning Unit is made up of one or more Fire Workload Areas (FWAs). Those FWA boundaries must extend to the FPU boundary.
The FPA team is developing a tool to simplify the process to help the Fire Planner identify where FWAs don't match up with the external boundary of the FPU. Expected date of availability is April 15, 2009.
April 1, 2009 is the Deadline for Wave 1 and 2 Fire Planning Units (FPUs) to complete their analyses. Wave 3 FPUs should be working on their investment alternatives. Wave 3's analyses deadline is May 1, 2009.
Investment alternatives include Fuels and Preparedness Options. The Fuels options should include fuels treatment and organization. There should also be a strategic long term Fuels Option. The Preparedness Options should include initial response and prevention components.
Technical Review Update: A number of FPU planners have been rotating into the FPA office to help the Implementation Coordination Group conduct the technical review on completed validation runs. Their assistance has been invaluable! Thank you! (Julie Campbell, James Newman, Michael Boomer, and Richard Sterry)
Anne Birkholz is working with the Implementation Coordination Group as the National Park Service representative through FPA's deployment.
FPA Web Updates
Additional webinars have been posted to the FPA website at: http://www.fpa.nifc.gov/Training/Webinars/index.html. The webinars are recorded livemeetings for which content has not been edited. The files are large so they may take time to download. Topics include:
- Fire Workload Area and Fire Management Units
- Data Input and Dispatch Logic
- Completing Validation Runs
- Calculating Diurnal Coefficients
- Building Preparedness Options
- Building Fuels Options - New
- Strategic Long Term Fuels - New
- Submit Final Budget to National - New
- Preparing for Line Officer Briefings - New
A View of the Large Fire Module
FPA uses fire behavior modeling to help Budget Planners gain insights into investment tradeoffs, at a national level. These investments include varying funding levels in different Fire Planning Units (FPUs) for preparedness and hazardous fuel activities.
Fire behavior modeling occurs within the FPA Initial Response Simulator (IRS) and Large Fire Module (LFM). IRS models the effectiveness of FPU fire resources, LFM does not.
The LFM does not model line-producing resources or other FPU personnel, but it does calculate the statistical outputs that are used to derive FPA performance measures. The LFM statistically calculates large fire occurrence, burn intensity, and expected suppression costs for each 270 m pixel (18 acres) in the FPU, based on the number of fires that exceed simulation limits in the IRS module. The Large Fire Module outcomes include:
- Burn probability & flame length
- Expected annual acres burned
- Expected suppression costs derived from Stratified Cost Index (Krista Gebert, 2007)
More detailed descriptions of the outcomes of the Large Fire Module can be found at:
http://www.fpa.nifc.gov/Training/Webinars/index.html
What's Next: FPA's Short-term Time Line
- April 1, 2009 - Wave 1 & 2 analyses due
- April 15, 2009 - FWA change tool available
- May 1, 2009 - FPU boundary changes due
- May 1, 2009 - Wave 3 analyses due
LANDFIRE Fire Behavior Fuel Model (FBFM) Calibration Workshops Scheduled.
For dates and locations visit: http://www.landfire.gov/participate_fuel_calibration.php.The goal of these workshops is to evaluate the LANDFIRE FBFM layers that are created from the crosswalk developed in the FBFM assignment workshops; when gross errors in the fuel data are detected, the layers are modified or adjusted to reflect local conditions.
