Fire Information for Resource Managers

(FIRMS)Diane Davies1, Shriram Ilavajhala1,

Jacques Descloitres2, John Musinsky 3

1Department of Geography, University of Maryland2NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

3Conservation International

Biodiversity Hotspots

Major Tropical Wilderness Areas

Density of active fires detected from MODIS (Terra)within biodiversity hotspot and wilderness areas:

November 2001 – October 2004

Low

High

Hot spots and wilderness areas

Density of fires

Fire Information for Resource Managers (FIRMS)

• FIRMS is a system that provides fire information from satellites to resource managers

• FIRMS fire information is - timely - easy to access

• Initial focus on Protected Areas

• FIRMS partners with FAO, UNEP and Conservation International

Overview

• Overview of FIRMS system• Examples of products and applications

Terraand Aqua

MODIS Rapid Response

Active Fire LocationsBurned Area Product

FIRMS

Cell phone Text messages

Email Alerts

Supporting Protected AreaManagement

Interactive Web GIS Maps

EDOSEstablish fire record

to help formulate fire policy

Early Warning Disaster Management

Ecological Monitoring

Prioritization of resourcesAnalyze fire responses

& staffing levels

Strategic Fire Management: to control or suppress fires

Modeling fire emissions

Validating fire risk maps

Identify poaching activity

Overview of FIRMS

DAAC

MODAPS

MODIS subset color composite images

7 September 2000

A day of MODIS (Terra) observations

Brazil 30 July 2004

20 August 2003

Terraand Aqua

MODIS Rapid Response

Active Fire LocationsBurned Area Product

FIRMS

Cell phone Text messages

Email Alerts

Supporting Protected AreaManagement

Interactive Web GIS Maps

EDOSEstablish fire record

to help formulate fire policy

Early Warning Disaster Management

Ecological Monitoring

Prioritization of resourcesAnalyze fire responses

& staffing levels

Strategic Fire Management: to control or suppress fires

Modeling fire emissions

Validating fire risk maps

Identify poaching activity

Overview of FIRMS

DAAC

MODAPS

MODIS subset color composite images

Web Fire Mapper

- A WebGIS that displays near-real time active fire data from the MODIS Rapid Response System

- developed to serve the broader natural resource management community for whom accessing and processing satellite data is costly and time consuming

- displays active fire data approx 2 hours after satellite acquisition

MODIS Subsets are used to improve ranger estimates of burned areas

Source: Dave Woods, Kruger National Park

Source: Dave Woods, Kruger National Park

Improved burned area map

MODIS products can be obtained a few days after satellite data acquisition from the EDC Distributed Active Archive Center

MODIS fire products- Burned area product (available 2006)

- Global Active fire product

HDF format and large files sizes can be cumbersome HDF format and large files sizes can be cumbersome

Relative Download Times from the DAAC and Web Fire Mapper

Approx 2 hoursMinimum of 48 hoursTime from satellite overpass to availability of data online

1 minute 9 seconds2 hours 3 minutes 41 secsDownload time for a bandwidth of 56k modem

500 kb53,200 kbFile Size

148.94 million km2

(global land coverage) 1.44 million km2

(approx 1 MODIS tile)Size of area over

which fires are detected

ESRI shape filesMOD14A1 Product

Web Fire MapperDAACParameter

Fire alerts system for Protected Areas

Web Fire Mapperhttp://maps.geog.umd.eduftp://mapsftp.geog.umd.edu

MODIS Rapid Responsehttp://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov

Use Country ImpactStrategic fire management: to control or suppress fires

Namibia, Tanzania, Alaska, China, Canada, Zimbabwe, India, Madagascar, Paraguay, South Africa,

Mobilization of resources to suppress or control the fire

Prioritization of resources

Establishing fire record to help formulate fire policy.

Mozambique, South AfricaSwaziland, China, Central AfricaBolivia, Namibia

Better understanding of the frequency and extent of fires for improved information for fire policy and for more effective zoning for forest management

Analyze fire responses and staffing levels

Alaska Prioritization of resources

Raising awareness of fires Namibia, Bolivia, Democratic Republic of Congo

Policy makers and the general public are more informedInformation is passed on to Ministers (Namibia) and PA managers (C Africa). In Bolivia fire maps are printed 3 days a week in El Deber newspaper during the fire season

Estimating burned areas (using MODIS subset imagery)

South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, New Caledonia

Feeds in to fire management decision support system (Kruger NP, Etosha NP)

Identify poaching activities

Tanzania The national parks agency (TANAPA) is using the alerts to identify poaching activities in savanna areas where poachers use bushfireto frighten and chase wildlife for capture or hunting

Ecological / Forest Monitoring

Tanzania, Congo, South Africa, Botswana, Brazil, Namibia Mozambique, Senegal, Peru, Zimbabwe, USA, Thailand, Japan, Swaziland, Russia,

Improved understanding of the role of fireBotswana: effect of fire on Wild Dogs. Tanzania: Long Term Ecological Monitoring Mozambique, Senegal, Peru: Forest monitoring

Early warning / Disaster Management

USA, South Africa, Indonesia, Ukraine

Disaster early warning Prepare maps for emergency managers

Validating Fire Risk maps South Africa Improve fire risk maps (South African regional weather forecasting)

Modeling Fire Emissions USA, Taiwan, Germany, Brazil, France, Israel, Namibia

Improving emissions modelling

Users of Web Fire Mapper…… include natural resource managers, scientists and policy makersinclude natural resource managers, scientists and policy makers from from at least 30 countriesat least 30 countries