Masters Thesis

Hazardous fuel mapping and thematic accuracy assessment in the wildland urban interface

Escalating costs related to fighting wildfire in the wildland urban interface and throughout the United States have raised concerns regarding risks and complexities associated with fire management. Assessment of conditions associated with fire risk, hazardous fuels, and fire behavior are enhanced using geographic information systems (GIS). However, many geospatial datasets are not sufficiently accurate for project level planning (20,000 ha). I compared the thematic accuracy of two surface fuel data sets derived from publicly available federal and state standard vegetation data with surface fuel data generated by rural community members for an area in the wildland urban interface. The one-sided 95% (P 0.05) confidence level for overall thematic accuracy of the surface fuel maps generated by public participants (75.9%) was higher than that of USFS 2004 CALVEG (38.6%) and 2005 California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Fire Resource Assessment Program (50.5%) datasets. Minimum mapping requirements adherent to United States Geological Survey and National Park Service standards (80%) were not met. However, results suggest that participatory GIS based fuel maps generated by rural community members can be more accurate for project level planning and management than federal and state surface fuel data sets.

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