WFEIS Related Info and Links
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS)
MTBS fire perimeter polygons are one of several burned area data sources used within WFEIS. Fire perimeter polygons and their associated fire start/end dates are obtained from the MTBS data.
Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS)
WFEIS utilizes the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) to obtain high resolution fuel loadings spatially delineated across landscapes. FCCS was developed by the Fire and Environmental Research Applications (FERA) Team at the USDA/USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station’s Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory. FCCS fuelbed data and equations are incorporated into USFS FERA's Fuel and Fire Tool. The tool allows users to build, characterize, and classify fuelbeds.
Consume
Consume is a module used to calculate fire consumption and emissions estimates developed by the USDA Forest Service Fire and Environmental Research Applications (FERA) team. Michigan Tech Research Institute developed a Python version of Consume 3.0 for use within WFEIS in consultation with the original Consume developers.
In February 2011, management and development of Python Consume was handed back to USFS FERA to be used as the base for future official Consume versions. As of May 2014, WFEIS uses Consume v4.1. The most recent version of Consume can be accessed as a module within USFS FERA's Fuel and Fire Tool.
Python Fire Weather Index (FWI)
Michigan Tech Research Institute also developed a Python version of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) for use within WFEIS. This version of the FWI contains equations for computing percent moisture content from the duff moisture code (from Lawson et al. 1997) – information need in WFEIS as moisture inputs to Consume equations.