Exercie 5 Preparing GIS data for simulation with FARSITE REM407 GIS Applications in Fire Ecology and Management Assignment: Make maps of the Fuelmodel layer and the clipped Canopy cover layer and submit to Assignments in Blackboard for Exercise 5. Please include a scalebar, legend, north arrow and title on your maps. Objectives Create a fuel model from a cover type grid Prepare input layers in GIS for FARSITE Learn how to enter weather data into FARSITE (demo) Build a FARSITE project (demo) Run FARSITE and interpret the results (demo) We will use data for Craig Mountain and use FARSITE to re-create the Maloney Creek fire, Aug 12-24, 2000 Flowchart for setting up a FARSITE project (see FARSITE Users Guide) 1
File Name File Ext. File Type Required Landscape.LCP GIS Fuel Model, Slope, Aspect, Elevation, Canopy Cover Optional Crown Bulk Density, Crown Base Height, Stand Height, Duff Loading, and Coarse Woody themes Weather.WTR Text At least one file FARSITE can use up to 5.WTR files in a simulation Wind.WND Text At least one file FARSITE can use up to 5.WND files in a simulation Adjustment.ADJ Text Although required, this file can consist of all zeros Initial Fuel Moisture Fuel Model Conversion Custom Fuel Models Fire Acceleration Air Attack Resources Coarse Woody Profiles.FMS Text FARSITE needs moistures at least one day before the beginning of the simulation Adjustment factors other than zero are optional none.cnv Text none yes.fmd Text none For fuel models other than the 13 standard NFFL models.acl Text none yes.air Text none needed to implement the air attack functions.cwd Text none specifies > 3" fuels for the Coarse Woody GIS theme used by Post Frontal Combustion Model. Burn Period.BPD Text none specifies a daily burn period by date Gridded Weather and Winds Ground Attack Resources.ATM Text none uses gridded weather files if a weather model to provide them is available.crw Text none needed to implement the air attack functions GIS File Data Units 2
File Theme Required Default Units Alternate Units elevation yes meters feet slope yes degrees percent aspect yes categories 1-25 degrees fuel model yes 13 NFFL models custom or converted models canopy cover yes categories 1-4 percent tree height no meters*10 meters, feet, feet*10 crown base height no meters*10 meters, feet, feet*10 crown bulk density no kg/m 3 *100, kg/m 3, lbs/ft 3, lbs/ft 3 *100 duff loading no Mg/ha tons/acre coarse woody no coarse woody models none 1. Generate Landscape layers for the Craig Mountain area in ArcMap Layers to generate are: elevation, slope, aspect, fuel models and canopy cover Step 1: Start a new ArcMap project make sure the Spatial Analyst extension is loaded. Step 2: All data for this lab is located in c:\nr406\farsite_data All data in this folder is in projection: UTM, Zone 11, datum NAD83, map units meters - Add the following layers: dataset description data type scale/resolution ele Elevation, meters (USGS) grid 30 m pixels canopy Canopy cover (Idaho GAP Analysis grid 30 m pixels Project) Craig_veg Cover types on Craig Mountain grid 30 m pixels (GAP) Fire_area83 Advancement of fire Aug15-24, 2000 shapefile Canopy_lookup. dbf Lookup table for canopy codes DBASE NOTE: When working with FARSITE it is very important that all raster data layers have the same extent and bounding coordinates. You can easily ensure that this is the case by defining extent, mask etc. in the Options menu in Spatial Analyst. If the extents for the layers are different you will NOT be able to create a Landscape file in FARSITE. Step 3: In the Spatial Analyst menu under Options set the parameters for the analysis as follows: General: Working directory: c:\nr406\farsite_data 3
Analysis mask: ele Extent: Same as layer ele Cellsize: Same as layer ele The extent and bounding coordinates of the elevation layer ele will be applied to all derived datasets. Elevation, Slope, Aspect Step 4: Create slope and aspect from the elevation layer using Spatial Analyst Surface Analysis menu. Create the slope layer in degrees (rather than percent rise). Canopy FARSITE requires the canopy layer to be expressed in categories 1-4. The GAP canopy layer in your data folder is expressed as follows: 0 (<15%), 1 (15-33%), 2 (33-66%), 3 (>66%) Farsite canopy categories: 0. no canopy 1. 1-20% 2. 21-50% 3. 51-80% 4. 81-100% The canopy categories match relatively well between the canopy cover from the GAP Analysis Project and the canopy cover classification used by Farsite. There is no need to reclassify the GAP cover into different cover classes. Step 5: The GAP canopy cover layer however covers a much larger area than the elevation and the vegetation data. Since you have set the elevation data layer as the analysis mask (you did this in step 3) all layers processed in Spatial Analyst will be clipped to the boundary of the elevation layer. To clip the canopy layer to the same extent as elevation simply open the Raster Calculator in Spatial Analyst, double-click on Canopy and click Evaluate. A temporary canopy layer named Calculation clipped to the elevation boundary will be created. Step 6: Make the temporary Calculation layer permanent: right-click on Calculation in the table of contents and select Make Permanent. In some versions of ArcMap you right-click on Calculation, select Data and then Make Permanent. Name the clipped canopy layer canopy_far. Create a Fuel Model from Vegetation 4
We do not have access to a fuel model layer specifically developed from the Craig Mountain area. However, we have a land cover layer that was developed as part of the Idaho GAP Analysis Project. We can use the RECLASSIFY tools in ArcMap to classify the vegetation categories onto a Fuel models map. In c:\nr406\farsite_data\ there is a table (gap veg and associated Anderson Fuel Models.xls) that will help you assign the Anderson Fuel Models to the vegetation categories on Craig Mountain. Step 7: Open c:\nr406\farsite_data\gap veg and associated Anderson Fuel Models.xls in Excel. The fuel models were assigned by the University of Idaho Experimental Forest Manager Harold Osborne. If you don t agree with the assignment of fuel models, please justify your modification and assign a different fuel model. FM1 Short grass FM2 Open timber grass understoy FM5 Short brush FM8 - Closed short needle conifer FM9 Closed long needle conifer FM10 Closed timber heavy downed woody debris FM11 Light logging slash Open the attribute table for the cover types in ArcMap. Select Reclassify in the Spatial Analyst menu. Assign fuel models to the vegetation categories according to gap veg and associated Anderson Fuel Models.xls or your own expertise opinion. Name the output layer fuelmodel. Click OK when you are done entering fuel models. Assignment: Make maps of the Fuelmodel layer and the clipped Canopy cover layer and submit to Assignments in Blackboard for Exercise 5. Please include a scalebar, legend, north arrow and title on your maps. 5
The following part of the lab can be viewed in Demo 5 later in Lesson 5 and is NOT required to turn in to Blackboard as part of Exercise 5. 2. Generate ASCII GRIDS from the input rasters FARSITE requires all input landscape layers to be in ASCII GRID format. Use ArcToolbox to convert the raster grids to ASCII grids (can also be done in Arc Workstation). - Start ArcToolbox Start Program Files ArcGIS ArcToolbox - Select Conversion Tool Export from Raster Grid to ASCII Input file: c:\nr406\farsite_data\ele Input cell value: VALUE Output ASCII: c:\nr406\farsite_data\elevation OK - Use the same procedure to create ASCII grids for slope, aspect, canopy (reclassified) and the fuel model layer. Save all ASCII files in c:\nr406\farsite_data\elevation 6
3. Build the Landscape file (.LCP) in FARSITE - Start FARSITE - Select New Project in the File menu - Begin creating the Landscape file (.lcp) by selecting Input Landscape Generate Landscape file Enter approximate latitude Enter the input ASCII grids you just created and enter the correct units and options. Save the LandFile (.LCP) in the Farsite_data folder. 4. Create the Weather file (.WTR and.wnd) in FARSITE Open Lewiston_weather_aug_15-24.xls (in the Farsite_data folder) to find daily weather information from the Lewiston, Idaho weather station during the time period August 15-24, 2000. Use this data as a guide when creating the weather file for FARSITE. The fire actually started on Aug 12. Since the weather throughout this time period was relatively constant you can assume that the weather for Aug 12-14 is about the same as it was for Aug 15. Climate data can also be found at: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/climatedata.html Select Weather types in the Input menu Create weather definitions for Low, Moderate, High and Extreme weather conditions. Select Weather type Enter min, max temp and relative humidity Create a series of wind directions and speeds Go to the next weather type (if you started with Low, you also have to do Moderate, High and Extreme) Click OK when you are done with the weather data. Save the.wwd file in the farsite_data folder. 7
Select Generate WTR/WND Files in the Input menu to generate the weather for Aug 15-24, 2000. (or Aug 12-24) Add Start and End dates Specify that you want to use WWD definitions and select the.wwd file you just created in the previous step. Assign Low, Moderate, High or Extreme weather to each day - use the Lewiston weather data as a guide. Each weather file can only hold weather for 7 days. If you create weather for the full period Aug 12-24 you must divide it up in two weather files. Click on GENERATE WTR & WND FILES when you are done. EXIT The weather stream files.wtr and.wnd files will be created. Alternative Creation of Weather Files Weather files can also be created as a space delimited ASCII file with the following fields: Month Day Precip Hour1 Hour2 Temp1 Temp2 Humid1 Humid2 Elevation rt1 rt2 Precipitation is the daily rain amount specified in hundredths of an inch or millimeters (integer). Hour1 corresponds to the hour at which the minimum temperature was recorded (0-2400). Hour2 corresponds to the hour at which the maximum temperature was recorded (0-2400). Temperatures (Temp1 is minimum; Temp2 is maximum) are in degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius (integer). Humidities (Humid1 is maximum; Humid2 is minimum) are in percent, 0 to 99 (integer). Elevation is in feet or meters above sea level. NOTE: these units (feet or meters) do not have to be the same as the landscape elevation theme (integer). Precipitation Duration is optional with the beginning (rt1) and ending (rt2) times (0-2400) of the daily rain amount. Only one time period per day is allowed. If these fields are left blank the precipitation amount is assumed to be distributed over the entire 24 hour period. The wind file (.wnd) has the following format 8
Month Day Hour Speed Direction CloudCover Hour is specified as 0-2359, to the nearest minute (integer). Speed is either the 20ft windspeed specified in miles per hour or the 10m windspeed in kilometers per hour (0-300, integer) Direction is specified in degrees, clockwise from north (0-360), (integer). A "-1" in the direction field indicates the winds to be up slope, similarly downslope winds can be specified with a "-2". CloudCover is specified as a percentage, 0 to 100 (integer) See examples of weather and wind files in the c:\nr406\farsite_data Maloney.wtr and Maloney.wnd 5. Create the FARSITE project file You are now ready to create the final FARSITE project from the Landscape (.LCP), weather (.WTR) and wind (.WND) files. Select Project Inputs in the Input menu Specify the Landscape, weather and wind files you have been working on (you may have 2,wtr and.wnd files) Click on the arrow by the fuel file to create it. The.ADJ file is also a required input to FARSITE. Leave all adjustment factors as 1.0, save the file and click Apply & Exit The last required input file is initial fuel moistures. 9
Click on the arrow to the left of Moistures (.FMS). Enter the suggested Initial Fuel Moistures according to the table below (or as you wish). Do not enter any data for the fuel models that are not used. Fuel 1 hr 10 hr 100 hr LH LW Model 1 4 7 12 50 100 2 4 7 12 50 100 3 na na na na 4 na na na na 5 6 8 15 60 100 6 na na na na 7 na na na na 8 6 8 15 60 100 9 6 8 15 60 100 10 8 12 15 100 100 Save the.fms file then click Apply & Exit. Back in the FARSITE Project window, save the project and click OK. Check that you have specified: Landscape file (LCP) Weather file (WTR) Wind file (WND) Adjustment file (ADJ) Moisture file (FMS) The fuel moisture file can also be created as a space delimited ASCII file (in Wodpad for example). The columns are as follows: FuelMod 1Hour 10Hour 100Hour LiveH LiveW See example Maloney.FMS 10
6. Set up initiate and run the simulation Select View Landscape File in the View menu to display the map of your landscape file. Use the dialogs for Landscape Display (in the Output menu) to modify the display if desired. Select Initiate / Terminate in the Simulate menu to initiate the run. Click on Elapse Time and Current Time in the Output menu to set up the clocks. Select Model Parameters under the Model menu modify or use the defaults. Click OK. There are many parameter settings to tinker with in the Model menu. Leave the defaults or modify use the Help if you want to learn more about the parameters. Spot fire can be enabled under the Fire Behavior Options in the Model menu. Click Duration in the Simulate menu and enter start and finish day and time for the fire. Enter start and end dates for the fire. Check the Use Conditioning Period of Fuel Moistures box and enter the conditioning for the month and day of the fire start. Click Help to read more about conditioning. Click OK when done. Click on the Drip-torch icon and then click on the fire start location on the landscape. Click Start in the Simulate menu to start the simulation watch the fire advance. Fire line can be added as a barrier Start Compare your FARSITE run to the actual advance of the fire displayed to the left. What parameters could be adjusted to better mimic the actual advance of the fire? Advance of the Maloney Creek fire August 15-24, 2000. Data from BLM office in McCall. 11