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The Natural Hazards Support System (NHSS) helps monitor, respond to and analyze natural hazard events, including earthquakes, hurricanes, severe weather, floods, wildfires, and tsunamis. The RMGSC developed NHSS to provide a web-based portal to integrated current natural hazard information, geospatial data, and detailed information directly from expert sources.

This combination of information provides decision makers and the public with a tool to track and analyze numerous natural hazard events across the country and around the world. For example, as a hurricane nears the shoreline, NHSS users can pinpoint the current location of the hurricane, in addition to accessing near real-time information about associated stream levels, wind speeds, and tide conditions. NHSS information can also be used to analyze the potential impacts of different types of natural hazards events occurring in the same geographic area.

The NHSS currently contains near real-time natural hazards information for:

• Earthquakes (USGS National Earthquake Information Center)
• Volcano Alerts (USGS Volcano Hazards Program)
• Weather Watches/Warnings (NOAA National Weather Service)
• Tropical Storms/Hurricanes (NOAA National Hurricane Center)
• National Wildfires (National Interagency Fire Center)

The NHSS also provides real-time natural hazards information for the following:

• DOI Emergency Management
• USGS Emergency Management
• USGS Natural Hazards Gateway

Southern California has one of the Nation's highest potentials for extreme catastrophic losses due to natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, landslides and floods. Estimates of expected economic losses from all these hazards in the eight counties (i.e., Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura) of southern California exceed $3 billion per year. In the future, estimated losses due to catastrophic events and multi-hazards are anticipated to increase as the 2005 population estimate of 21 million residents for the Southern California study area, that is 7-percent of the total U.S. population, continues to grow at 1.4% per year as well as the fact that the eight county area's Gross Regional Product exceeded $873 billion in 2004. The RMGSC is contributing to two of the SoCal MHDP Work Groups and research tasks:

• Wildfires and Debris Flows - Dynamic Integration of Debris Flow Outlooks into NHSS
  The U.S. Geological Landslide Hazards Program is working on the implementation of a prototype effort in Southern California to generate debris flow outlooks that flag areas with a higher susceptibility to debris flow events. RMGSC, in coordination with the Landslides Program, is currently developing and implementing a process to automatically populate these outlooks into the Natural Hazards Support System. This type of dynamic web-enabled access contributes to the effort to reduce loss of life and property due to landslide hazards through improved understanding and effective mitigation.
  
  

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• Risk Analysis-Identifying Human Hazards Exposure
  

  Geographic research objective is to improve the resiliency to natural disasters in Southern California through the integrated application of physical and social science information regarding natural hazards to support community decision-making concerning emergency preparedness, emergency response, and recovery of the natural and human environments. Knowledge of the population at risk, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, spatial distribution and temporal movement patterns of humans and commodities within the Southern California region can improve our understanding and assessment of the social, economic, and environmental impacts and consequences induced by the occurrence of natural hazard events.

  In support of the SoCal MHDP ShakeOut Scenario magnitude 7.8 (M7.8) earthquake, researchers shall investigate the urban environment characteristics, patterns and trends as contributions to the regional and site-specific assessment of economic and social impacts as a result of the simulated M7.8 ShakeOut Scenario. Geographic research shall provide socioeconomic, demographic, commuting, migration and commodity flow information as thematic inputs and parameters for simulating the seismic event scenario, assessing the impacts and consequences from the simulated natural hazard and assisting community hazards mitigation planning by reducing potential losses to the urban environment.

  Publications and References

  • Earthquake Country Alliance
  • ShakeOut Scenario
  • Increasing the Resilience to Natural Hazards in Southern California (USGS Fact Sheet)
  • Increasing Resiliency to Natural Hazards: A Strategic Plan for the Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project in Southern California (USGS Open-File Report)

GeoMAC is an internet-based mapping application designed to allow Fire Managers and the Public access to dynamically displayed online maps of current fire locations and fire perimeters in the continental U.S. and Alaska. The GeoMAC application is an indispensable tool for aiding fire-personnel by dynamically displaying the most current wildland fire information available from a web browser. The RMGSC developed and maintains the site.

The National Fire Plan was developed in August 2000, following a landmark wildland fire season, with the intent of actively responding to severe wildland fires and their impacts to communities while ensuring sufficient firefighting capacity for the future. The NFP addresses five key points: Firefighting, Rehabilitation, Hazardous Fuels Reduction, Community Assistance, and Accountability.

The National Fire Plan Maps website is an internet-based mapping application that visually portrays the Department of Interior and Department of Agriculture land management agencies hazardous fuels program projects in relation to the wildland urban interface communities. These are communities that are within the vicinity of federal lands that are at high risk from wildland fire. The hazardous fuels program reduces the impacts of unwanted wildland fires on communities, natural resources, and cultural resources. Past disruptions of natural fire cycles, as well as other management practices, have resulted in wildfires of increasing intensity and severity. Treatment of hazardous fuel will help reduce the impacts of wildfires on communities and restore health to fire-adapted ecosystems.

The National Fire Plan Operations and Reporting System (NFPORS) is an interagency system designed to assist field personnel in managing and reporting accomplishments for work conducted under the National Fire Plan. NFPORS is used by the five federal wildfire agencies to track Hazardous Fuels Reduction (HFR) and Burned Area Rehabilitation (BAR) treatment projects. NFPORS provides comprehensive National Fire Plan data starting with FY03. NFPORS is the system of record for planning and reporting accomplishments for these two NFP key points.

RMGSC personnel developed, implemented, and maintain the spatial portion of NFPORS. The current mapping tool supports NFPORS requirements in three ways: First, it provides a confident method for locating and verifying location for project and treatment units for Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Burned Area Rehabilitation projects; Second, it provides additional location-based information to the NFPORS database (e.g. Congressional District, County); and Third, it provides a mechanism for making and printing maps suited for project execution, guidance, reports, or display.

The Fire Planning and Mapping Tools Website is a user-friendly public website. Users can create maps of an area, print, and download data to their PC for use with GIS software. The application provides critical GIS data needs in a timely fashion to meet the needs of communities. This comes at a critical time when community fire protection planning is now required in order to receive grant funding through Federal programs such as the Healthy Forests Initiative, Healthy Forests Restoration Act, and the National Fire Plan.

The site allows fire personnel, in the field, to upload their fire perimeters. This capability keeps the Fire Planning site current and provides a central storage location for fire perimeter data.

These sites are being developed by the USGS, for the Southern Sierra Fire Management Officers from Bureau of Land Management, USDA Forest Service, and National Park Service. The SWFRS application is a prototype comprehensive reporting system for all federal fires in the southern and central Sierra Nevada range. The purpose of this reporting system tool is to enhance fire managers ability to collaborate and better understand fire and smoke impacts across multi-agency landscapes. This application provides reporting forms and tools for digitizing point and perimeter locations for small fires. Dispatchers are able to enter fire information as the information becomes available.

A primary function of this system is providing real-time air quality information to the California Air Quality Advisory Board during prescribed-burn operations. The current site has web links to cameras located throughout the area which are used to view the smoke conditions.

Links to Real-Time Smoke Monitoring sites using Beta Attenuation Mass monitors (BAMs) are provided. BAMs measure particulates in the air, specifically smoke. Each monitor can measure either or both 2.5 and 10 micron particulates depending on the filters used. The web site is updated hourly with 5-minute averages from the operating site.

The RMGSC currently hosts the Geospatial Task Group website. The GTG is a coordinated point of contact dedicated to providing high-quality information and expertise on the use of geospatial data, standards, applications, and processes in support of interagency wildland fire management. Through sharing information the GTG is committed to improving fire safety and wildland fire management and supporting all wildland fire activities including planning, incident management, education, prescribed burns, and various other activities.

The RMGSC has developed the Rapid Data Delivery System (RDDS) to provide emergency and incident response teams with timely access to geospatial data including a variety of vector layers and a wide range of raster data including orthoimagery, digital raster graphics (USGS topographic maps), digital elevation models, and hillshade topographic products. Raster products are generated and managed with EarthWhereTM spatial content management and provisioning system, that provides users fast access to required formats with options to reproject, mosaic and reformat data based on their specific needs. Based on user requests in 2007, updated 1-meter natural color imagery has been added for data delivery including high risk areas of wildland fire and hurricanes.

RMGSC personnel developed the first version of the Rapid Data Delivery System (RDDS), called Fire Data Ordering (FDO), in the fall of 2005 to support the delivery of data to tactical wildland fire responders. The newest version of this application, which was renamed RDDS, expanded the functionality and content of the FDO to seamlessly support all types of tactical emergency responders. RDDS provides this support by offering a password-protected portal that allows users to quickly specify an area of interest (AOI) and then download the selected vector and/or raster data directly to their desktop. Data is delivered by the system as a clip, zip, and ship of selected vector data, or selected raster data will be made available at an FTP site or delivered via CD. The ease of use and access to data provided by RDDS is a key to tactical emergency responder's ability to quickly prepare and respond to national emergencies.

The probability of wildland fires has significantly increased across the nation in recent decades due to the combined effects of drought, insect and disease epidemics, expansion of populations into fire-prone areas, and increased fuel loads. In the Southern Rocky Mountain region, an unprecedented epidemic of Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) has been causing forest mortality on a massive scale since the early 2000s. The epicenter of the MPB outbreak in Colorado is Grand County, an area with a rapidly expanding wildland-urban interface and an economy based largely on recreation and tourism. The effects of large-scale fire in Grand County are likely to be severe, as its extensive, dense lodgepole pine forests - now largely dead or dying - are located on steep, mountainous terrain. Post-fire flooding and erosion would have significant impacts on the major reservoirs and lakes in Grand County, which provide water not only to local users but also, through trans-basin diversions, to many major population centers along Colorado's Front Range.

For these reasons, the USGS has selected Grand County as a demonstration site for an interdisciplinary multi-hazards assessment. The Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center (RMGSC) provides overall coordination for the project, which encompasses investigations of the ecological, hydrological, geological, and social impacts of the MPB epidemic and associated potential fires. Scientists at the RMGSC are 1) monitoring and mapping the extent and status of the MPB epidemic using advanced remote sensing technology; 2) conducting fieldwork and modeling to quantify changing fuel loads and potential fire behavior in MPB-killed forests; and 3) developing an ecosystem services assessment framework to analyze the effects of the epidemic and potential fires on critical ecosystem processes and products such as water provisioning, sediment retention, wildlife habitat, and aesthetic values.

To develop the ecosystem services assessment for Grand County, RMGSC scientists are supporting the synthesis of research conducted by the other USGS disciplines on water quality and quantity, nutrient cycling, sedimentation, debris flows, erosion, population dynamics of native fish (including a threatened species of cutthroat trout), and numerous social and economic factors. The RMGSC will organize and integrate these results to establish a comprehensive accounting of the potential losses associated with fire. The project's findings will be shared with local agencies and stakeholders to facilitate management and mitigation of the impacts to people, property, and natural resources posed by natural and anthropogenic hazards in Grand County.

Collaborators for this project include the National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service (Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests, Rocky Mountain Research Station, and Fire Modeling Institute), Colorado State Forest Service, the Front Range Fuels Treatment Partnership, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Colorado Bark Beetle Collaborative, Joint Fire Sciences Program, and local governments.