PHOTO BY NICK SKOWRONSKI
Check out our blog post by Marie Cook for her reaction to this workshop!
When it comes to wildfire protection, local, state, and federal agencies must be able to respond at a moment’s notice. ESRI’s geographic information system (GIS) tools enable wildland firefighters to protect life, property, and natural resources through comprehensive planning and coordinated response. From simple fire suppression to complex, large-scale incident response involving numerous agencies, training in GIS tools can help you make accurate decisions under any conditions.
The Northeast Forest Fire Protection Commission (NFFPC) and the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange (NAFSE) co-sponsored this useful workshop/training on November 27-28, 2018 in South Portland, ME.
Day 1: Introduction to ESRI Decision-Support Tools for Wildland Fire Management 8:00 am- 5:00 pm Learn to use Collector and Survey123, including data export and interpretation. These GIS tools can capture critical information to firefighter situational awareness. Where is the fire located? What is the best way to access the fire? What is the terrain and fuel type? Where are the evacuation routes? What are the hazards to responding units? What are the values at risk? Whose jurisdiction is the incident within? Participants will learn to capture, share, and display these data on mobile devices. This course will also involve a field exercise. Target Group: Field-based fire personnel including first responders, squad and crew bosses, helitack personnel, as well as natural resource professionals in prescribed fire and other applications. Course Prerequisites: “Smart” phone, tablet, or other mobile device required.
Day 2: ESRI Decision-Support Tools and Applications for Wildland Fire Management 8:00 am- 5:00 pm This course will dig deeper into the computer-based GIS functionality behind data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Participants will use these tools to track resources, assess changing fire behavior, predetermine tactics and strategies, produce key maps to support suppression operations, and measure progress toward meeting established objectives. Target Group: Fire management staff officers, agency administrators, command staff, incident commanders. Course Prerequisites: Introduction to ESRI Decision-Support Tools for Wildland Fire Management. Basic familiarity with GIS software is recommended. Students will be required to provide their own laptop computer for the course.