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Implemented

no user-supplied raster functionality

I have a fuel model raster layer that I generated for an NPS unit that I'd like to supply as the fuel model layer and then run IFTDSS. It doesn't look like I can do that though and run the landscape summary and fire behavior models. My fuel maps are based on a lot of post-fire fuels data. All I can see that IFTDSS can do is run the models with the landfire data, but there are a lot of differences in my dataset due to a recent wildfire. I see that I can change attributes of the fuel model layer class-by-class, but that's not what I want to do. There are a lot of different pixel by pixel changes since the fire. Doint this using the current landscape editing tools would take many iterations since not all pixels in a fuel model type changed to the same fuel model type in response to the widlfire, all of this depended both topography and fire severity, so using just the mtbs map as a filter doesn't work either. I can see several ways in which the ability of operators to enter user-supplied rasters could provide more realistic fire hazard and fire behavior outputs. For example, many managers have recent liDar data that could be used to supply better canopy base height and crown bulk density data than the canned LANDFIRE data. I already clipped my landscape to the same size as all of the raster grids I would supply, and they are al 30 m resolution grids, just like LANDFIRE. The raster values in the fule model grid also correspond to LANDFIRE raster values, so this functionalitiy would be a great improvement for real-world modeling of fire risk, etc.



We're glad to announce that landscapes can now be uploaded to IFTDSS!


Here are some links to the Help Center How-To topic, as well as the Landscape Requirements for uploading topic.


Thank you all for your inputs on this feature, they were very helpful for our team to refer to during the development of this feature.


Josh

IFTDSS Support Team

This feature has also been requested in another forum post, so I want to paste that latest reply here:


Thanks all for your feedback here. We’re going to mark this feature as “Deferred”. It won’t be possible right now, but changes are anticipated:


The Development Team has been discussing this. Based on the way landscapes are currently handled in IFTDSS, we can’t support landscape file uploads. That said, there are plans to change the way we handle landscapes in IFTDSS and this change would make it easier for us to support landscape uploading. We don’t have specifics as to a timeline, but I wanted to post here let everyone know the status of this feature request thus far.


For those following or looking to post on here, please continue to do so. Many have given us their specific use-cases of why this feature would help them, and we greatly appreciate it! If anyone has a specific use-case they’d like to share in addition to these, please feel free to do so. The more information we have on the “why” and “how” everyone intends to use this feature, the better we can design IFTDSS to meet those needs.


Josh

IFTDSS Support Team

Hi Helen,

Thanks for sending in your question. Unfortunately I have to tell you that at this time we are unable to support local veg or fuels data upload to IFTDSS. We do have it on our list for potential development in the future and your description here is helpful for us to know how you might use such data.


As you have discovered you can edit the LANDFIRE data fairly easily in IFTDSS. You can edit an entire landscape by fuel model as you mentioned or you can edit within a designated "mask" (which could be an individual fire perimeter) I have included the link to that portion of the IFTDSS help (the info regarding editing by mask is toward the end of this help page).

https://iftdss.firenet.gov/firenetHelp/help/pageHelp/content/40-tutorials/editinguserruletutorial.htm?Highlight=edit%20landscape


I realize this is not the solution you are looking for as far as uploading your own data, but it might get you a little further down the road if you would like to continue using IFTDSS for analysis at this scale.


IFTDSS Team-Kim

Kim,

Thanks for your response. Do you know of any other fire risk software that will allow you to supply a user-defined fuel model layer for estimating fire risk/spread, etc.? I also spoke with Nate Benson on this...since the model I'm developing is for a deliverable on a project he funded. I posted to the user forum and he asked me to also send him an email with that post, which I did. I think we're going to try to submit this paper soon to Fire (the new MDPI journal) as a data paper, so any comments you have on this would be really useful for the discussion section of that paper.


Thanks,

Helen





Hi Helen,


Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you on this... 


Might be too late at this point, but the only other software that may do what you need is Arc Fuels. I am not that familiar with the program, but I do know it has some potential for using your own raster data. It is an add-on to Arc Map and is based on FlamMap etc. It has quite a bit of functionality so it may get at what you are looking for. I will post to the User Forum as well, thanks for sending your thoughts and feedback. 


https://www.fs.fed.us/wwetac/tools/arcfuels/


Kim

IFTDSS Team


Ticket: https://iftdsshelp.freshdesk.com/helpdesk/tickets/1313












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