Introduction:
The goal for this lab was to determine which areas within
Shawano County had the highest risk for fire damage. My objective was to find areas with the
most fire occurrences in the past, are under intensive fire protection by the
Wisconsin DNR (burning permit needed year-round), and at least 1 kilometer away
from a water body. The areas with most
fire occurrences and with intensive protection by the DNR indicate a history of
high fire risk, and the distance from water bodies indicates the dryness of the
environment and access to abundant water.
My intended audience is government officials and developers working in resource
management and in development. Knowing
where the fire risk is greatest can determine how buildings are built and what
precautions are taken to prevent fire damage.
This information would be used by developers, politicians, or community
members advocating for or against a building project.
Data Sources:
For this project, layers showing fire occurrences in the
state of Wisconsin, the census block groups, fire protection areas of the DNR,
rivers, and lakes were needed. This data
was obtained from the ESRI 2013 and Wisconsin DNR 2014 database. One of the concerns is the age of the data. For one, the databases are a year off from each
other. In addition, the data is now
three or four years old. Things could
have changed since the data was created, such as increased fire occurrences in
another area. Another concern was the
fire protection areas. These are
designations that the DNR makes based on climatic conditions such as
rainfall. This can vary greatly from
year to year, and so the areas that are in need of intensive fire protection most
likely have changed since the data was created.
Methods:
First, the area of interest needed to be identified. To do
this, Shawano County was queried from a shape file of Wisconsin. Next, a layer
of all the block groups of the United States was clipped to only show the block
groups of Shawano County. Then, a spatial
summarized join was performed on the clipped block groups and the fire
occurrences to get the number of fire occurrences per block group in Shawano
County. On the fire protection data
layer, a query was performed to only select areas under intensive protection by
the Wisconsin DNR. This selection was
intersected with the block groups containing fire occurrence information. On the river and lake layers, a buffer of 1
kilometer was made. Using these two buffers an area of 1 kilometer around
water bodies was erased from the block groups.
Finally, a query was performed to find the block groups with over 100
fire occurrences. The end result was a
polygon layer showing the areas of Shawano County most at risk for fire
damage. These steps are summarized in
Figure 1 below.
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| Figure 1. Data flow model for finding areas with a high risk of fire damage. |
Results:
The result of the project was one large section and one
smaller area with high fire damage risk.
These areas are found in the western and northern parts of the
county. This corresponds to the intensive
fire protection area that covers the northern half of the state that changes to
extensive or no fire protection in the southern half of the state. Extensive
fire protection indicates that a burning permit is required during the months
of January to May while the no fire protection area means that the DNR does not
regulate burning permits. Shawano County
contains a lake and several rivers that travel throughout the entire
county. This would indicate that the
county as a whole should be sufficiently watered to prevent fires. But one must
also consider the type of soil and vegetation that covers much of the
area. Forests are common that often are
fire suppressed and thus have abundant fuel to start a fire. There are also many sand prairie and former
prairie habitat that are historically affected by fire. One should also consider the urbanization of
the rural areas like Shawano County and the increased risk this poses for fires
in buildings and other structures. Figure
2 below shows a map of the area mapped within Shawano County and also a
location map showing Shawano County within the context of the state of
Wisconsin.
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| Figure 2. Map of the highest fire risk areas of Shawano County, WI. |
Evaluation:
This project was a great way to apply concepts from lecture
and practiced in class to a real-world example.
It required careful planning of the steps needed to come to the final
result. For example, during the planning
process it was important to map out a rough sketch of the data flow model the
project would take on as well as summarizing the needed results in a list
format in order to work from a concise framework. This made doing the actual steps easier and
quicker to complete. The creative
freedom given to each student was fun and challenging. It meant that each person had to find a
spatial question that could be answered and find the data needed to complete
it, one of the biggest complications in GIS work. If the project was to be repeated, there are
several things that could be improved.
The first and most important would be to find current data. The world today is constantly changing in
many respects, and employers want the most up-to-date information possible. If a developer was to use this data for
zoning and building, they would want it to reflect the area as it is today to
prevent complications in the development process. Another aspect to change would be the river
and stream data. This was made by the
Wisconsin DNR, but was intended for the entire state. This means that many smaller streams and
rivers did not get factored into the river and streams layer. To a developer or politician looking at
Shawano County specifically, they would want more detailed data used. During this project, I encountered
difficulties with different projections on different datasets. This was especially prevalent when I learned
that some of my data was corrupted and I needed to find new data to use. I also had to carefully choose the data and
the processes I would use to make a clear, accurate, and concise map.
