The Fire Information Engine

Abstract

ABSTRACT The recently established Center for Fire Research and Outreach at the University of California, Berkeley has developed a web-based toolkit, the Fire Information Engine Toolkit (FIET), for wildfire-related needs. The FIET is intended to meet the needs of diverse user groups (homeowners, decision-makers, including fire operations, and researchers) at a variety of scales (local, community, and regional levels) before, during, and after wildfires. During the initial phase of the FIET, we have focused on developing pre-fire tools for homeowners and decision-makers at the local and community levels. For example, we have developed a science-based, parcel-level structure vulnerability assessment and ranking approach that will help homeowners and communities to identify hazards and prioritize planning and mitigation activities. A version of this assessment can be completed anonymously by homeowners interested in decreasing their vulnerability to wildfire, and a similar version can be downloaded and used by decision-makers on a community-wide level. In addition, we have developed a number of innovative web-based Geographic Information System (webGIS) applications including an interface to display results of the structure vulnerability assessment at a community level, as well as search-by-address maps of California's wildland-urban interface (WUI), fire threat, fire recurrence, and upcoming changes to building codes. In collaboration with researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the next phases of the FIET development will concentrate on enhancing the available tools, including incorporating real-time weather into fire behavior modeling and tools for evacuation modeling of natural disasters.