COMMUNITY WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

Community Wildfire Protection Planning

We offer a comprehensive methodology for cost-effectively conducting hazard assessments, risk analysis, and developing community-based fire mitigation plans compliant with the U.S. 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act’s “Community Wildfire Protection Plan” (CWPP) methodology.

When combined with scientific fire-behavior modeling, the community assessment provides fire planners with the information necessary to determine mitigation projects. The data is used to identify and prioritize landscape and community-level mitigation projects. These results, recommendations and implementation plans are developed as Community Wildfire Protection Plans, Operational Pre-Attack Plans, and Annual Work Plans.

Mitigation Plan Development

Using the results obtained from the community scale assessment and risk analysis, a series of mitigation plans can be developd to support fire planning, hazardous fuels reduction, other mitigation activities, and fire incident response requirements. The fire plans not only provide the baseline for preparedness planning, but also provide necessary information for operational firefighters during fire incident response and suppression efforts. Knowing what areas are most prone, and where infrastructure is located, is critical for effective response.

Distributing Assessment and Fire Plan Results

Fire management and mitigation activities are often spread across several organizations, each with different jurisdictional responsibility. The ability to collaborate and share data and results of the assessment and risk analysis with other local fire agencies, State and Federal fire agencies, and especially the public, is key to the CWPP process.

While personalized public meetings are essential, and hardcopy brochures are an option, desktop or tablet-based GIS applications and web sites are ideal for educating and communicating wildland fire risk concerns to the public.