The Wildland Fire Assessment System (WFAS) is an integrated, web-based resource to support fire management decisions. It has an extensive nationwide user base of federal, state and local land managers. The system provides multi-temporal and multi-spatial views of fire weather and fire potential, including fuel moistures and fire danger classes from the US National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS), Keetch-Byram and Palmer drought indices, lower atmospheric stability and satellite-derived vegetation conditions. It also provides fire potential forecasts from 24 hours to 30 days. Point data for many products are also provided in addition to spatial data for more localized applications. WFAS is under revision to refine existing products and to increase the utility of more spatial data products such as gridded surface meteorology and MODIS satellite data. Many of these new products will incorporate internet mapping services to allow users to resolve spatial products to a region of interest. These revisions will also provide higher resolution data for regional and local applications with higher spatial and temporal resolution. Planned changes will support decisions made at national, regional and local levels.
Nested Spatial Resolution for Multi-level Decision Support
WFAS will provide products to support decision-making at multiple time and space scales. Currently, most WFAS products are generated at the national level but planned enhancements will generate more products at regional and local levels. 
Many WFAS products are derived from a network of fire weather stations distributed throughout the country.
Current WFAS Products
WFAS data products are currently grouped into five categories:- Fire Potential and Danger
- Adjective Fire Danger Class
- Haines Index
 - Weather
- Temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind
- Access to point-source data
 - Moisture and Drought
- NFDRS Dead Fuel Moisture
- AVHRR NDVI-derived products
- Relative greenness
- Departure from average greenness
 - Experimental Products
- NFDRS Forecasts
- Satellite-derived live fuel moistures
 - Regional Products
- NFDRS Forecasts
- Satellite-derived live fuel moistures
Future WFAS EnhancementsNational- Weather-driven greenness products (Spatial and Temporal)
- MODIS-based Vegetation and Water Indices (EVI, NDVI, NDWI) (Composite data, updated daily)
 Regional- More products aimed at the Geographic Area Coordination Center (GACC) level
 Local - Point-retrieval interface for AVHRR and MODIS Vegetation Index Data
- Customized daily summaries
- In the future, more WFAS products will be available through point or local region summaries. This will allow the user to select all data for a point of interest. We also plan to implement the FlamMap fire behavior modeling system at local levels using gridded surface weather data. These calculations will be performed several times each day.
Acknowledgments
The Wildland Fire Assessment System (WFAS) is a USDA Forest Service, Fire and Aviation Management-supported system that was developed by Forest Service fire behavior researchers as an avenue to increase the utility of remote sensing and spatial data in fire management. WFAS has a diverse, interagency user community ranging from private land management organizations to state and federal agencies. These agencies include the USDI Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, USDA Forest Service, the National Weather Service, State and local land managers and importantly, the general public.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 17 February 2008 )
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WFAS 
