1. Evaluating Oregon Communities at Risk using the Wildfire Risk Explorer
GEO 580
Oregon State University
April 30, 2007
Kuuipo Walsh
Institute for Natural Resources
Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today about using the wildfire risk explorer to evaluate Oregon Communities at Risk. My name is Kuuipo Walsh and I am a GIS analyst with the Institute for natural resources.

2. Outline Vision and Background Making Maps
Demo of Wildfire Risk Explorer
After this talk you should be able to explain to someone what the Wildfire Risk Explorer is all about and make a custom map for an area of interest in Oregon. I will give you some background information, tell you about our different mapping tools, and give you a demo of the web site.

3. 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
How many of you are familiar with Oregon Explorer or any of our basin portals like the Willamette Basin Explorer? Great, The Wildfire Risk Explorer is a little different in that it is our first topic portal for the Oregon Explorer series of web portals. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Oregon Explorer, Oregon Explorer is a statewide natural resources digital library, cooperatively managed by OSU Libraries and INR. The public release of Oregon Explorer is slated for this summer which will include our Imagery Portal.
Oregon Explorer
Public Release in June 2007

4. Wildfire Risk Explorer
Released in
October 2006
Funded by ODF
Team members:
Jeff Behan, INR
Janine Salwasser, OSUL
Tim Fiez, OSUL
Kuuipo Walsh, INR
Marc Rempel, OSUL
Ann Walker, ODF
Jim Wolf, ODF
The Wildfire Risk Explorer was released in October. The portal project was a cooperative effort between OSU Libraries, INR, and the Oregon Department of Forestry. The Wildfire Risk Explorer was developed to make the information used to assess wildfire risk in Oregon available to users [Show DVD released in 2005]

5. 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
So our focus for the project was making data and information accessible to these users.  These data (which where non-existent or difficult to obtain in the past) are now being made available to agencies, organizations and the interested public to facilitate fire planning efforts.

6. Exploring Wildfire Risk in Your Area
All Explorer sites, including the Wildfire Risk Explorer, are organized in two sections. The first section is a learn about section which provides you with contextual information. For example you can learn about wildfire risk in your area by selecting your zip code, community, county or watershed. So for example if you select a community like Mitchel City community.
Select a Community …

7. Mitchel City community has a rating of high risk
You are given a link to a map shows that the Mitchel City community has a rating of high risk. As an interactive map, you can zoom in and out, turn on and off map layers and identify map features.

8. Generating a report with the statistics wizard
The second section gives you access to content (maps, and data collections, ) that you can use for your analysis. For example, the table and chart functionality helps summarize data in meaningful ways for planning documents and for prioritization of geographic areas.

9. There a two mapping tools in the Wildfire Risk Explorer
There a two mapping tools in the Wildfire Risk Explorer. For someone unfamiliar with GIS they can use our basic mapping tool which requires three steps. First select what to map. We have made a selection of pre-built maps relating the the 2005 community at risk assessment for the state.

10. Second, choose where you want the maps centered
Second, choose where you want the maps centered. You can enter a community, a place name like a city or town, or a region like a county or watershed. Once you have selected what and where to map, you get an interactive map.

11. For most people here, folks comfortable with GIS mapping

12. Making a map with the advanced mapping tool
For most people here, folks comfortable with GIS mapping, use the advanced map tool. You can create maps using all available data layers and make use of the Advanced tool set. Here is a map that I created using the advance map tool. It shows the Wildland Urban Interface Boundary east of Portand. From the advanced map tool you can also download the vector-based GIS datasets.

13. Overlaying the Overall Risk Rating layer in Google Earth: Demo
Clicking on the file link allows you to view the CAR ratings in Google Earth by opening a kml file.

14. For more information, you can contact the Oregon Explorer co-managers
Janine Salwasser, OSU Libraries
Jimmy Kagan, OSU Institute for Natural Resources
Stay turned for the Summer public release of Oregon Explorer. For more information you can contact the Oregon Explorer co-managers Janine Salwasser and Jimmy Kagan.