![]() Lidar has led to 3D reconstructions of forests showing what an area looked like before and after a wildfire raced through. David Shimel, the agency’s lead for carbon cycle and ecosystem programs, said radar technology has made it easier to observe topographic landscapes and forest structure allowing them to distinguish the types of vegetation below the tree canopy. Seeing Through SmokeĬalifornia has become NASA’s laboratory for testing new instruments and developing tools as it observes wildfires that have almost burned to the edges of its own Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus in Southern California.ĭr. Another map layer showed a one-mile buffer from surrounding roads to determine where forestry workers could most easily access for replanting. Following the 2020 Creek Fire, the group used GIS to create a heat map to show distances to the nearest green trees needed for natural regrowth where the wildfire had burned. When restoring forests, the group must target its efforts to the areas with the greatest ecological need and potential, and with the fewest logistical constraints to doing their job. That’s where geographic information system (GIS) technology has been able to fill in the gaps where landscapes can’t be inspected in person. “We can’t do this work on the ground, by ourselves.” “We can’t ground truth a million plus acres of land each year,” said Libby Pansing, a forest and restoration scientist with American Forests, referring to the practice of checking assumptions in person. Technology has been made even more necessary to study fires as their size and severity have grown. There were likely countless more acres saved because of early detection and simulations through the company’s technology, he said. Despite that, it could have been far worse, Ramirez said. Of California’s 16 largest and most intense wildfires in its history, half occurred in just the last two years. ![]() Key is learning to “live with good fire,” he said, the type of fire that keeps forests in balance, as well as resisting the desire to rebuild homes in the same locations of previous, recent, fires. The complexities resemble a “fire quilt,” says Joaquin Ramirez, founder of Technosylva which developed the fiResponse software system, built with Esri’s ArcGIS technology, that is used by states and fire agencies in predicting and monitoring active wildfires. The many factors driving shifting wildfire behaviors include climate changes, weather, local winds, water-stressed vegetation, fuels, topography, soils, and ultimately, us - humanity. Able to do more than ever, it’s observing, even predicting, fire behavior and helping determine which species of tree may endure climate change and the threat of wildfire better than others. Modern technology is helping build the healthy forests of the future. ![]() That was among the messages from experts speaking at The Geography of Wildfire and Forest Resilience: Preparing for What’s Next presented by Esri and the Los Angeles Times in November. What we’ve learned about wildfires – their behavior, fuels, chosen paths – has changed as dramatically as the technology used to study them. As a result, the way we fight them is changing too.Īfter 4.4 million acres were scorched last year in California, and another 2.5 million as of November 2021, the state and country are poised to fight fires far differently by spending billions to prevent them, rather than suppress them. California is setting aside $1 billion this year for fire efforts focused on clearing forests of potential fuel like dry vegetation and plans to spend at least $200 million annually for the next six years. Nationally, lawmakers have proposed billions to do the same across the country.Ĭalifornians and much of the country are going to need to learn to live with good fire to prevent devastating fires, adjust to a future where familiar forests may never grow back, and where it will take careful human intervention to foster a new kind of wilderness.
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