Evaluating Oregon Communities at Risk using the Wildfire Risk Explorer

GIS in Action 2007GIS in Action 2007

Vancouver, WashingtonVancouver, Washington

April 18, 2007April 18, 2007

Kuuipo WalshKuuipo Walsh

Institute for Natural ResourcesInstitute for Natural Resources

www.oregonexplorer.info/Wildfire/www.oregonexplorer.info/Wildfire/

Natural Resources Digital Library Vision

Oregon Explorer™ as the “go to” place for natural resources information

Create a “purposeful” digital library

Information and map-making tools to help people learn about and make better natural resource decisions throughout the State

Address importance of “place” and access to geo-referenced information

Oregon Explorer

Public Release in June 2007

Wildfire Risk Explorer

Released in

October 2006

www.oregonexplorer.info/Wildfire/

Funded by ODF

Wildfire Risk Explorer Users:

Natural resource decision-makers

Community Wildfire Protection Planners

Wildfire Protection Agencies

Land Management Agencies

At-risk communities

Homeowners

Landowners

Interested citizens

Exploring Wildfire Risk in Your Area

Wildfire Risk in Your Area

Select a Community …

Mitchel City community has a rating of high risk

Generating a report with the statistics wizard

Choose between a report on overall fire risk rating &Total acres of wildland urban interface

Choose the watersheds, counties, or communities you want to evaluate and or compare

Compare and contrast acres at low, medium and high risk

Making a map with the advanced mapping tool

What have we learned

• We discovered that 201,584 acres were potentially at high-risk in Umatilla county.

• We discovered that 106,632 acres were potentially at high-risk in Morrow county.

• The Mitchel City community was rated to be at high risk

For more information, you can contact the Oregon Explorer co-managers

• Janine Salwasser, OSU LibrariesJanine.salwasser@oregonstate.edu

• Jimmy Kagan, OSU Institute for Natural ResourcesJimmy.kagan@oregonstate.edu