USFS - Wildlife Urban Interface (WUI) Data

This page allows for the download of data regarding the WUI, including non-WUI vegetated areas and non-vegetated or agriculture. The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is the area where houses meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland vegetation. This makes the WUI a focal area for human-environment conflicts such as wildland fires, habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and biodiversity decline. Using geographic information systems (GIS), the USFS integrated U.S. Census and USGS National Land Cover Data, to map the Federal Register definition of WUI (Federal Register 66:751, 2001) for the conterminous United States from 1990-2010. These data are useful within a GIS for mapping and analysis at national, state, and local levels. Data are available as a geodatabase and include information such as housing and population densities for 1990, 2000, and 2010; wildland vegetation percentages for 1992, 2001, and 2011; as well as WUI classes in 1990, 2000, and 2010.