Fire Weather User Needs Assessment

Presentation of the Fire Environment Working Team to

the Joint Action GroupMarch 1, 2006

Outline

• NWCG

• FENWT

• FENWT User Needs Assessment

• Collaboration with the JAG

• Suggested stones to overturn

National Wildfire Coordinating Group

• Purpose– to coordinate wildland fire management programs – to avoid wasteful duplication – to provide a means of constructively working together

• Goals– to provide more effective execution of each agency’s

fire management program.  – to provided a formalized system to agree upon

standards of training, equipment, qualifications, and other operational functions.

BIALyle Carlile

BLM(Larry

Hamilton)

FWS(Phil Street)

NPSEdy Williams

Rhodes

FS(Alice Forbes)

Natl. Assn. of State Foresters

Kirk Rowdabaugh (West)

Mike Long (East)U.S. Fire

AdministrationHugh Wood

Intertribal Timber Council

James Erickson

USDI

FS Fire Research

Mike Hilbrunner

USDA

Associate Members (non-voting)

Natl. Fire Protection

AssociationJim Smalley

Forest Fire Management

Group Paul de Mar

DHS

IRM Program Mgmt Office Judy Crosby

Fire Equipment WT

Tory Henderson

Fire EnvironmentWT

Paul Schlobohm

Info Resource Mgmt. WT Shari Shetler

Fire Use WTBill Leenhouts

Wildland/UrbanInterface WTSam Scranton

Safety & Health WT

Paul Broyles

Training WT Logan Lee

Incident Business

Practices WT

Hallie Locklear

Publication Mgmt. System WT Allen Deitz

Incident Ops Standards WT

Bob Leaverton

Wildland FireInvestigation WT

Paul Steensland

Radio Narrowband Advisory GroupSteve Jenkins

Geographic Area Advisory Group Brian Shiplett

Wildland FireEducation WT

Maureen Brooks

Prediction Operations Outreach

Su

pp

or

t

Social Science Advisory Group Aden Seidlitz & Jonathan Taylor

Wildland Fire Environment

• Fuels

• Weather

• Topography

FENWT Concept

• Integrated approach to…– Fire Weather– Fire Behavior– Fire Danger

• Coordinated with…– Predictive Services– Air/Smoke Management– Fuels Management– National Weather Service

Fire Environment Working Team

Members charteredoutside of FENWT

StrategicPartners

FENWT Chair

Fire Behavior Committee

Fire Danger Committee

Fire Weather Committee

Interagency Fuels Group

NIFCG

NWSPredictive Services

GroupNPSG

Strategic Partners

Eastern States Western States

Members - NASFRepresentatives

NWCGLiaison

Fire ResearchFire/Air Issues

GroupFAICG

Members charteredby FENWT

NWCGLiaison

Fire Environment Working Team

Members charteredoutside of FENWT

StrategicPartners

FENWT ChairPaul Schlobohm

FBCWayne Cook

FDCLarry Bradshaw

FWCDick Bahr

NIFCGDennis Dupuis

NWSLeroy Spayd

NPSGTom Wordell

Strategic Partners

Eastern StatesJoe Kennedy

Western StatesWayne Mitchell

Members - NASFRepresentatives

NWCGLiaison

Fire ResearchMike Hilbruner

FAICGDennis Haddow

Members charteredby FENWT

NWCG LiaisonAlice Forbes

FENWT Mission

• Provide interagency oversight, strategic direction and vision relating to measuring and predicting the wildland fire environment and share that understanding with the users.

FENWT Goals

• Technology– Existing and emerging technologies describe, model

and predict our wildland fire environment conditions

• Research and Development– R&D efforts meet fire environment business needs.

• Decision Support– Decisions are supported by robust and trusted

applications and information.

FENWT Strategies and User Needs

• Identify and prioritize existing and emerging technologies

• Utilize an iterative process to assess user needs, evaluate products and monitor feedback

• Promote spatial database system that can produce a variety of decision products from core underlying environmental data

FENWT Strategies and Integration

• Develop an integration plan

• Establish partnership with R&D

• Collaborate with R&D to move science into application

• Support development of science-based and peer reviewed tools

How did we get here?

• NWCG asked:– How many

Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) do we need?

How did we get here?

• NWCG asked:– What are we

going to do about ROMAN?

User Needs Assessment

• FENWT recommendation:– Weather data collection and use should be

planned for according to user’s needs– Employ an assessment of current and future

needs for data to answer both questions– Participate in and use OFCM/JAG and other

surveys

User Needs Assessment

• Other surveys:– National Weather Service– National Predictive Services Group– BlueSkyRAINS West

User Needs Assessment

• January/February 2006– NWCG approves FENWT plan– JAG holds first meeting– FENWT joins JAG second meeting– Opportunity to work together

Stone 1.1

• From what source or sources does fire weather data need to be collected? – To perform common fire management

analyses involving weather

Stone 1.2

• What analyses still need to have data collected under current NFDRS standard?– What analyses do not?

• Is it possible to use other datasets? – Which ones? How?

Stone 2.1

• What is the role of point data in the fire weather applications of today and tomorrow?

• What is the role of gridded data in fire weather applications of today and tomorrow?

Stone 2.2

• What kind of observation network is required to implement the point and gridded data applications of today and tomorrow?

Stone 2.3

• Given the roles of point and gridded data, what tools/processes/systems are needed to distribute, analyze, display, and archive these data?

Question 3

• What fire weather thresholds are important to us (fire management)? – How sensitive are they?