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Project ID: 01-1-4-09

Year: 2001

Date Started: 09/19/2001

Date Completed: 09/30/2005

Title: A Novel Approach to Regional Fuel Mapping: Linking Inventory Plots with Satellite Imagery and GIS Databases Using the Gradient Nearest Neighbor Method

Project Proposal Abstract: Accurate regional maps of vegetation and fuels are increasingly needed for assessing fire risk, planning fuel management, and modeling the behavior and effects of prescribed burns and wildfires. In order for such maps to be useful to land managers, they must accurately predict a large number of vegetation and fuel attributes across heterogeneous, multiownership landscapes. We propose to map fuels in the Western U.S. using the Gradient Nearest Neighbor method, a novel approach to vegetation mapping that uses multivariate statistics to link ground data, satellite imagery, and GIS maps of environmental variables. The GNN method imputes a suite of fine-scale plot variables to each pixel in a digital map, allowing simultaneous and consistent predicting of a wide range of vegetation attributes. Because plot data are maintained at the finest level of resolution, the final product can be used to map a wide array of summary variables and classifications. Although the GNN method has been successfully used to generate forest vegetation maps, suitable for detailed, stand-level modeling across the landscape, further testing and accuracy assessment is needed to examine its utility for predicting fuel patterns across a range of ecosystems. We plan to produce detailed fuel maps for three prototype landscapes in Oregon, Washington, and California, encompassing vegetation from dense forests to rangelands in a mosaic of natural and human-dominated environments, Digital maps, documentation of methods, and detailed accuracy assessments will be made available to managers working in each of the study areas. We will also develop a user-friendly software interface that will facilitate use of the GNN method by others to map vegetation.

Principal Investigator: Janet L. Ohmann

Agency/Organization: Forest Service

Branch or Dept: PNW-Forestry Sciences Lab-Corvallis

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Scott Danskin	University of Georgia	Warnell School of Forest Resources
Co-Principal Investigator	Jeremy S. Fried	Forest Service	PNW-RMA-Resource Monitoring & Assessment-Portland
Co-Principal Investigator	Matthew J. Gregory	Oregon State University	Forestry
Co-Principal Investigator	Kenneth B. Pierce	Forest Service	PNW-Forestry Sciences Lab-Corvallis
Co-Principal Investigator	Michael C. Wimberly	South Dakota State University	GIS Center of Excellence
Collaborator/Contributor	Tom Leuschen	Fire Vision Enterprise Unit
Collaborator/Contributor	Roger D. Ottmar	Forest Service	PNW-Seattle-Managing Natural Disturbances
Collaborator/Contributor	Dave Sapsis	California	CAL Fire-Forestry & Fire Protection-Sacramento Headquarters
Collaborator/Contributor	John Szymoniak	Forest Service	NIFC-National Interagency Fire Center
Collaborator/Contributor	Jan W. Van Wagtendonk	USGS-Geological Survey	WERC-Yosemite Field Station
Federal Cooperator	Janet L. Ohmann	Forest Service	PNW-Forestry Sciences Lab-Corvallis

Project Locations

Consortium

California

Northwest

There are no project locations identified for this project.

Project Deliverables

Final Report ("Results presented in JFSP Final Reports may not have been peer-reviewed and should be interpreted as tentative until published in a peer-reviewed source.")

There are no deliverables available for this project.

Supporting Documents

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