A Near Real-Time Rangeland Wildfire Management Tool. (5899)
Authors:
W.D. Meyer* - ERDC/CERL R. Wallace - ERDC/CHL J. Stinson - ERDC/ITL A. Byrd - ERDC/CHL M. Fong - ERDC/CHL C. Downer - ERDC/CHL J. Jorgeson - ERDC/CHL
Abstract:
Land managers at Military Installations, employ a variety of tools and techniques to help them make decisions concerning wild fire management on military ranges.
Among these are geographic information systems (GIS), field data collection, and automated field sensors. Combining near real-time data collection sensors with soil moisture modeling provides a new tool in training range wildfire management.
Wildfire risk is significantly decreased when conducted on those lands that have a higher moisture level than surrounding areas. Previous methods at determining moisture levels relied on a single indicator that was applied to the entire
installation. A new approach, which is currently underway at Fort Hood, Texas, applies the soil moisture computations from the Girded Surface Subsurface
Hydrologic Analysis model (GSSHA)to produce soil moisture maps. Working with the Natural Resources Branch at Fort Hood the Engineering Research and
Development Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has developed an automated weather data retrieval system with on-site data management that can automatically feed data into the GSSHA software to produce soil moisture maps and wildfire predictions for two watersheds at Fort Hood, Texas.
Speaker Information: William D. Meyer, ERDC/CERL, P.O. Box 9005, Champaign, IL 61826-9005; Phone: 217-352-6511 ext 7650; E-mail:
Session Information: Wednesday, November 3, 2004, 8:55 AM-11:00 AM Presentation Start: 9:45 AM
Keywords: Wildfire Prevention; Soil Moisture Map; Real-Time; Web Portal
