Wildfire Hazard Potential (WHP) for the conterminous United States (270-m GRID), version 2018 classified: 2nd edition

Federal wildfire managers often want to know, over large landscapes, where wildfires are likely to occur and how intense they may be. To meet this need we developed a map that we call wildfire hazard potential (WHP) – a raster geospatial product that can help to inform evaluations of wildfire risk or prioritization of fuels management needs across very large spatial scales (millions of acres). Our specific objective with the WHP map was to depict the relative potential for wildfire that would be difficult for suppression resources to contain. To create the 2018 version, we built upon spatial estimates of wildfire likelihood and intensity generated in 2016 with the Large Fire Simulation system (FSim), as well as spatial fuels and vegetation data from LANDFIRE 2012 and point locations of fire occurrence from FPA (ca. 1992 – 2013). With these datasets as inputs, we produced an index of WHP for all of the conterminous United States at 270 meter resolution. We present the final WHP map as five WHP classes of very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. On its own, WHP is not an explicit map of wildfire threat or risk, but when paired with spatial data depicting highly valued resources and assets such as structures or powerlines, it can approximate relative wildfire risk to those specific resources and assets. WHP is also not a forecast or wildfire outlook for any particular season, as it does not include any information on current or forecasted weather or fuel moisture conditions. It is instead intended for long-term strategic fuels management.
This dataset is the classified wildfire hazard potential (WHP). It is intended for use in strategic wildland fuels and land management planning at mostly regional to national scales. We have classified continuous WHP values into very low, low, moderate, high, and very high WHP classes, with national wildland fire and fuels planning objectives in mind.
This data publication is a second edition that was made available on 10/10/2018. Minor metadata updates were included on 11/13/2019. The first edition (https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2015-0046) represents WHP mapped in 2014, depicting landscape conditions as of 2010. This second edition is the 2018 version, and depicts landscape conditions as of 2012. (See \Supplements\WHP2014_to_2018_ChangeSummary.pdf for a summary of the changes between the first and second editions of these data.)

To check for the latest version of the WHP geospatial data and map graphics, as well as documentation on the mapping process, see: https://www.firelab.org/project/wildland-fire-potential.

Details about the Wildfire Hazard Potential mapping process can be found in Dillon et al. 2015. Steps described in this paper about weighting for crown fire potential have been dropped in the 2018 version due to changes to the FSim modeling products used as the primary inputs to WHP mapping.

The FSim products used to create the 2018 version of WHP can be found here in Short et al. 2016.

Dillon, Gregory K.; Menakis, James; Fay, Frank. 2015. Wildland fire potential: A tool for assessing wildfire risk and fuels management needs. In: Keane, Robert E.; Jolly, Matt; Parsons, Russell; Riley, Karin. Proceedings of the large wildland fires conference; May 19-23, 2014; Missoula, MT. Proc. RMRS-P-73. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 60-76. https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/49429

Short, Karen C.; Finney, Mark A.; Scott, Joe H.; Gilbertson-Day, Julie W.; Grenfell, Isaac C. 2016. Spatial dataset of probabilistic wildfire risk components for the conterminous United States. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2016-0034