Description
Geovisualization tools can supplement statistical analyses of landscape-level wildfire behavior by providing nuanced information about relationships between fire spread, topography, fuels, and weather. The objectives of this study were to develop geovisualization tools for analyzing wildfire behavior and to conduct a descriptive analysis of the 2017 Thomas and Detwiler wildfire events in California. Fire features like rate of spread (ROS) vectors and active fire front delineations derived from repetitive airborne thermal infrared (ATIR) imagery sequences were incorporated into geovisualization tools hosted in a web geographic information systems application and used to descriptively analyze landscape level wildfire behavior. Professionals and researchers specializing in wildfire related topics provided feedback on the effectiveness and utility of the geovisualization tools. The primary components or processes of fire behavior analyzed in this study were ROS, spotting, causes of fire spread impedance, and fire spread over multidirectional slope. Results indicate that medium- and fine-scale topographic features, roads, and riparian fuels coincided with cases of fire spread impedance. Major ridges and valleys slowed, or halted fire spread consistently between study areas. Relationships between spotting, fuels, and topography were inconclusive. Survey respondents found the tools to be moderately effective for postfire spread analysis and visualizing fire spread over multidirectional slope.
