Identifying valuable landscape and community features
Previously, we explored the detailed landscape assessment and segmentation data available to Vibrant Planet users, as well as wildfire hazard probability and intensity models powered by Pyrologix, a Vibrant Planet company. In order to build a plan for landscape and community resilience or cross-boundary wildfire management, you may also identify and evaluate landscape features with societal value. We call all features with societal value Strategic Areas, Resources, and Assets, or SARAs.
What defines a SARA?
All SARAs must be mappable, have the ability to be affected by wildfire, and have societal value. For instance, transmission and distribution lines have societal value by providing power to communities, they can be mapped on the landscape, and they can be affected by wildfire.
The platform includes a set of SARAs that have been identified west-wide using publicly available datasets. You have the opportunity to customize SARAs by altering existing SARAs with locally available data, or by adding new SARAs that have value on their specific landscape.
Example of all SARAs mapped together
Organization into categories
Vibrant Planet organizes all SARAs into categories. These categories include: Assets, Safety, Recreation, Ecological Commodities, Biodiversity, Wildlands Health, Water, and Science & Culture. By categorizing each SARA into objectives, Vibrant Planet allows users to emphasize specific management objectives as they develop scenarios using the platform. For instance, if you’re developing a community protection plan, you may decide to emphasize assets and safety as your primary goals. The platform will prioritize treatments, based on your emphasis, that provide the greatest benefit or risk reduction to the SARAs in those categories.
Response Functions
In addition to being mapped, each SARA is evaluated for how it responds to disturbances (wildfire) and management options. We refer to this as a response function. A SARA can be impacted positively or negatively by different intensities of wildfire and by different treatment options. Disturbance and treatment response functions for each SARA are developed using a reproducible modeling framework or by literature review and expert-informed opinion.
For example, let’s look at a hypothetical custom SARA, aspen stands, which have evolved as a crucial habitat type within a fire-adapted ecosystem. Aspen will respond positively to low intensity fire, but respond negatively to high intensity fire. Additionally, different types of treatment to an aspen stand could also have negative or positive effects. Mechanically thinning an aspen stand can result in both a reduction of wildfire hazard and encourage regrowth and resprouting – a positive effect. High intensity grazing in an aspen stand, by comparison, may reduce the overall wildfire hazard but can have a reduced positive impact on the aspen stand by impeding growth.
With a better understanding of the landscape and societal values included in Vibrant Planet, next we’ll explore how the platform groups this information into areas that can be more deeply analyzed.