Using ArcView 3.x with Firewise: The Frenchtown pilot

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Using ArcView 3.x with FirewiseThe Frenchtown
pilot

• John Q. Murray
• Murray Information Services, Inc.

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Frenchtown, Montana

• Missoula County
• Settled 1850s by French-Canadian Catholics
• St. Johns Day (June 24) one of the earliest
  community celebrations in Montana special
  trains from Butte and Anaconda

• 20 miles west of Missoula (University of Montana)
• On transportation corridor Clark Fork, I-90,
  railroad, pipeline, fiber optic lines

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IRS 5m image Frenchtown MT
Great family-oriented lifestyle great schools,
recreation Frenchtown Pond State Park, King Ranch
Golf Course
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How our Firewise project started

• Two very dedicated teachers Roberta Chapman
  (FJHS), Dennis Normand (FHS)
• Among the first to complete the EOS Center
  GIS-4-MT ArcView GIS training
• ArcView K-12 site license for all Montana
• Chief Waldron suggested adopting Firewise as the
  students community project

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Frenchtown Fire responsibilities

• Structure fire, wildland fire, medical aid,
  hazardous materials response

• District size
• 3.15 billion sq.ft.
• 72400 acres
• 113 sq.mi.
• Missoula and Mineral Cos.

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Firewise a great community project

• Hazard Mapping
• Fire - Structural - Wildland
• Hazardous Materials - Flood - Earthquake
• Technical Rescues
• Access Routes - Water Supply - Area
  Familiarization - Equipment Demands

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Firewise timely development poised on districts
east side

• Missoulian, 3/24/2002 the (Wye) area is
  widely assumed to have the greatest growth
  potential in the Missoula Valley. Estimates range
  from 3,000 to 6,000 new homes will be built in
  the area during the next decade.

Blue U.S. Census blocks intersecting the
Frenchtown Rural Fire District (FRFD) Red
Frenchtown fire district Green U.S. Census
block tracts entirely within the FRFD fire
district Source Tiger data 30063blk00.shp,
30061blk00.shp
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Chief Waldrons Vision

• Collect data
• Get data into the computer
• Draw color-coded maps
• Correct the data
• Use the maps for Structure Protection plans and
  community education
• In a few years, collect the data again

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Step 1 Collect data

• Weekly field trips
• Volunteer Montana (Americorps) provided a
  10-month grant for coordinator Philip Keating
• School volunteers
• 3 teachers
• 30 students

• Fire district volunteers
• 6 residents, 60 firefighters

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In the field NFPA299 paper
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Step 2 Data into the computer
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The Data Entry Application

• The application minimizes data entry errors
• Converts latitude and longitude to decimal
  degrees for ArcView 3.2
• Double-checks scoring
• Generates text files that can be read into
  ArcView as tables (which become event themes)
• Can download the app from the Internet see
  http//www.murrayinfo.com/bobbannon

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Also available on other devices

• Trimble GeoExplorer III data dictionary
• Compaq iPaq, HP Jornada versions
• Palm Pilot version by my friend Clark at RedZone
  Software (Colorado)
• More under development
• Live display of GPS points on Jornada ArcPad
• Internet version ASP writing to Access db

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NFPA 299 Review

• Fuels trees, shrubs, grass
• Building materials
• Water availability
• Topography
• Road design access
• Point-based total determines rating

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Assessing Fuels
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Fuels ratings
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Assessing Materials, Utilities
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Materials Ratings
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Assessing Topography
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Topography, Road Ratings
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Step 3. Draw color-coded maps

• Use ArcView GIS software to produce color-coded
  maps from the assessment data (the Firedanger
  field in our tables)

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Base maps from local govt

• Missoula County
• Alan Hoyt Share Missoula Co. maps
• Surveyor Dept Assign addresses when missing
• Wildfire mitigation grants, 2001 2002
• United States Forest Service
• Liz Gupton Sharing Ninemile, Superior maps
• State of Montana
• Internet library resources http//nris.state.mt.u
  s
• DNRC John Pilsworth Montana State Forester

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Partners provide many resources

• County, state provide parcel data USFS roads and
  trails, EOS Center satellite images
• Ken Wall of Geodata Inc. our valuable local GIS
  guru find somebody like Ken to help

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Add our Firewise data onto their base layers
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Adding our data the procedure

• Add delimited text file as a table
• Add the table as an event theme (choosing
  longitude for x, latitude for the y values)
• Convert the event theme to a shapefile
• Use the Projection Utility to project from WGS
  1984 to Montana state plane, 1984, feet
• Edit the legend, setting colors for the four
  values of the Firedanger field

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Adding our data the easy way

• Use the Avenue script ProjectLatlonFromFile
• You specify the input file, the script does the
  rest

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Step 4. Correct the data

• Ongoing process
• Problems on our end
• Addresses missing from NFPA 299 form
• Lat/lon transcribed wrong
• Lat/lon did not have enough precision
• Problems in the county/state base maps
• Missing addresses on parcels in our district

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Ground truth

• 780 NFPA 299 forms entered into computer
• NFPA address same as county address 289
• NFPA address different from county 72
• Either NFPA or county address missing so cant
  tell if it is correct 419
• Almost 500 need to be reviewed

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Map book for QA

• Moved to 8.1 because labels are more flexible
• Maps show where we need corrections
• Organized by township, range, section
• Map shows every address from the county
• If missing, fill it in on the map by hand
• Three symbols for our NFPA299 data
• X address, latlon doesnt match
• ? means our address or their address missing
• ? (check mark) Its good!

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Labels in 8.1 much nicer than 3.2
Can write small Visual Basic routines
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Example West Fork Petty Creek
Points are bunched up off the road. X means
our address conflicts with the countys address
for the parcel in which it appears ? indicates a
mismatch because either our address or the
countys address is missing Likely a precision
problem with the lat/lon values Probably need
new lat/lon points
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Section map ? entry May be OK

• Consider ? unknown id ? 29
• NFPA299 address 19925 CONIFER
• Countys address for this latlon point PO BOX
  460387
• PO Box, so cannot be sure that our data is
  correct doublecheck it

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Section map X entry Mismatch

• Consider X non-matching id ? 28
• NFPA299 address 19815 CONIFER, Wood A-Frame
• Countys address for this lat/lon point 19720
  CONIFER DR
• 19815 doesnt match 19720!
• Sent fire department personnel out to do
  ground-truth

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Firewise Information System

• Designed by fire depts, coded by EOS Center
• John Murray, Frenchtown Ray Erickson, Florence
• Tim Weisenburger, EOS Center programmer
• High-profile demonstrations
• Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne
• Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman
• Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton
• Vice President Dick Cheney
• 24K Western Governors Assn. grant for imagery
• 1m Ikonos multispectral each pixel 1 sq. meter
• Will schedule for this spring after the snow
  melts

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ArcIMS application on Internet

• http//yoda.cec.umt.edu/firewise/map/index.asp

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Reports for individual homes

• Viewable by anyone
• Indicates whether qualified data
• Edit requires login with password

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Login to edit the data

• 3 levels of security
• One who originally entered the data
• A supervisor for each fire district
• EOS Center global admin privileges

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ArcIMS is the way to go

• Validation of latlon, addresses at data entry
  would have avoided many issues
• Alex Philp Estimated cost value of the system
  from scratch 220,000 (servers, ArcIMS, data,
  programming)
• Alex, Tim, Jeff are now in the private sector
  http//www.gcs-research.com

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Changes over time

• Original requirement Color code the ratings
• Simple NFPA 299 form and write to a text file
• They changed the NFPA 299 form!
• Add support for all versions of the form,
  original data
• Convert data to the latest version
• Correct errors or update data
• Allow edits read text file and repopulate form
• Homeowners want to see their rating
• Replace backend text file with Access database
• Add query by name or address
• Add reports

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Whats next

• Simulations based on the Firewise data
• Ask what if questions?
• Individual homes
• Entire subdivisions
• Scenario Builder 3.2 extension provided to
  schools by the Orton Family Foundation
• No programming required great for students
• Firewise scenarios developed by Ken Wall, Geodata
  Services, Inc., Missoula, Montana
• http//www.geodata-mt.com

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Have fun!
Best wishes from the original Frenchtown Firewise
crew Phil, Johnny Q, Stacy, and Charlene
Phil and Charlene are now with Missoula City
Fire Stacy is an EMT in Vancouver WA