Lab 7: Fire Hazard Map

Creating my fire hazard map of the Station Fire region was by no means an easy task. First, I had to track down all of the data. The primary components were vegetation data, which I found on the Cal Fire website, digital elevation data, which I found on the USGS seamless server, and the perimeter of the Station Fire. Once I had compiled all of these pieces of the puzzle, I placed each data set into the Arcmap document.

This is where the spatial analysis began. The first step was to create a hillshade of the original digital elevation model of the region. This hillshade would show in detail the physical geography of the region, including the peaks of the hills as well as the floor of the ocean. Next, I used spatial analysis to create a slope map of the region. This slope map would analyze which raster cells contained regions of extreme slopes, as well as those with minimal slopes. After analyzing this map, it became clear that the mountainous regions have high slopes, and the urban regions have minimal slopes. At long last, it was time to reclassify both the vegetation data as well as the slope data. Each of these data sets were reclassified based upon the NFPA standards provided in the tutorial.

After I had used the raster calculator to add together the reclassified slope data and the reclassified vegetation data, I produced a fire hazard map that showed which regions are most susceptible to a potential fire. As the final maps shows, the station fire region falls into the most dangerous category. Along the way, I encountered several challenges. For one, I was unsure how to reclass my vegetation data set. After collaboration, I discovered the most efficient way of completing this task. Also, many of my data sets were displayed in different projections, which often complicated my calculations and displays. Other than these minor complications, the entire spatial analysis project was relatively straight forward. I have definitely learned the real-world value of spatial analysis, and several of its most useful applications.