GTG Meeting Summary

April 15 -- 17; Denver

**Attending:**

BLM -- Susan Goodman, Katy Madrid, Janice Reimers

NPS -- Brian Sorbel, Doug Stephen, Dave Hammond

USFS -- Joe Frost, Dorothy Albright, Steve Gregonis

BIA -- Luther Arizana

USFWS -- Ken Bottle, Andrea Olson

USGS -- Liz Lile

Eastern States -- Sue McLellan (Florida)

Western States -- Skip Edel (Colorado)

**Interagency Data Standards: Daily Fire Perimeter and Fire History**

The GTG will attempt to develop interagency Fire GIS data standards
where appropriate. The GTG is currently in the process of submitting a
proposed standard for Daily Fire Perimeters to the Data Acquisition
Working Group (DAWG). Several themes were identified as potential
candidates for future development of interagency standards including:

Fire History (point and polygon)

Condition Class

Fire Regime

Fuel Model

Fire Management Zones / Fire Management Units

Dispatch Zones

GACC Zones

Operational themes (fire station locations, lookout towers, etc.)

Aerial hazards

Along with the Daily Fire Perimeter standard, the GTG will next develop
an interagency Fire History standard. Several fields were identified for
inclusion in an interagency fire history standard including:

Unit ID

Fire name

Fire number

> Fire type
>
> General Cause
>
> Specific Cause
>
> Agency/Owner
>
> Start date
>
> Control date
>
> Acres
>
> Collection method
>
> Collection date
>
> Collection scale

A subgroup comprised of Joe Frost (USFS), Brian Sorbel (NPS), Janice
Reimers (BLM) and Sue McClellan (Eastern States) will develop item
definitions for each field in the proposed interagency standard by July.

The GTG will also be proposing a data standard for Latitude and
Longitude data items.

**Interagency Standards, the Data Acquisition Working Group (DAWG) and
the GTG**

The DAWG coordinates the standardization process for NWCG data
standards. The DAWG defines a data standard as a "specification for a
[data item]{.underline} that has been established by authority or
general consent." According to the DAWG any data standard has three
parts:

1)  Meta-data Definition -- description of the length and format of the
    data item

2)  Standardized Data -- list of valid data values; domain

3)  Change Management Procedures

The DAWG doesn't look at a fire history GIS standard as one standard.
They see each attribute or field name within the fire history layer as a
separate standard. So, in a sense, an interagency fire history GIS
standard is just a collection of 8-10 standards for the individual
items.

The GTG can only sponsor and maintain data standards for items that are
exclusively geospatial (Latitude, Longitude, Collection Method, Map
Scale, etc). Other groups have responsibility for many of the items that
we think of as being a part of a fire history standard: fire name, fire
number, etc. The DAWG is currently working on standards for Agency, Fire
Name, and Fire Number data items. They have already adopted a standard
for Unit ID. The GTG can submit recommendations for non-geospatial
fields like General Cause and Specific Cause as part of a fire history
standard. However, the final standard for General Cause and Specific
Cause data items (and their appearance in an interagency fire history
standard) could look different based on what the DAWG and the groups
responsible for those items finally agree on. This has the potential to
slow things down in the short term but will likely payoff in the end as
the data items definitions in fire history layers will be the same as
those in other fire applications.

# GIST

The GTG will submit a proposal for a GIST ICS position to the Operations
Working Team at their fall meeting. This proposal will include a task
book as well as other documents required for ICS position proposals. A
draft version of the proposal should be in place by July. Contact your
agency's GTG representative if you have strong opinions about what
should or should not be in the taskbook for an ICS GIST position as well
as your opinions on training and equipment (Do they need a laptop?)
requirements.

# FTP Site and Data Ordering for Incident Support

Things are still on track to have an FTP site and data ordering process
for fire season in the 11 western states. The BLM will maintain an FTP
site for incidents. This FTP site will also have a number of datasets
including DRGs, DEMs, Forest Visitor maps, Fuels/veg, Geographic names,
indexes, ownership, RAWS, roads, Special Management Areas and
Streams/lakes for 11 western states. This data will be organized by
state and will be in the specified BLM datum/projection for that state.
The data will only be accessible via download from the FTP site. You can
take a look at it at: [ftp://ftp.fire.blm.gov](ftp://ftp.fire.blm.gov/).
A username and password will be required to upload incident data but is
not required to download base data.

The USGS will be supporting on on-line data ordering process. Users draw
a box to identify an area of interest. Data is then delivered via ftp or
mail-cd. I believe that the USGS will be offering much of the same data
as what will be available on the BLM ftp site. Users can specify
datum/projection using the USGS site. Users can also request updated
DRGs (buildings and roads are updated using DOQQs) though this will take
a bit longer. More details on both options will be available soon.

**2^nd^ International Wildland Fire Ecology and Fire Management
Congress**

This conference will be held the week of November 16, 2003 in Orlando,
FL. Details on the conference can be found at:
<http://www.ametsoc.org/AMS/meet/FAINST/5fire2fireeco.html>.

There will be three-day tracts on Fire and Forest Meteorology, Fire
Ecology and History, Fire and ecosystem restoration, Fire and Ecosystem
Management, Wildfire Management and Suppression, Social and Economic
Aspects of Fire and Fire Technology and Fire Behavior Modeling. The GTG
will be organizing the Fire Technology and Fire Behavior Modeling tract.
This is starting to look like a fairly major event that you will likely
hear much more about in the coming months.

# OAS Aviation standard datum proposal

The GTG is in favor of the OAS proposal to set WGS84 as the standard
datum for aviation GPS.

**Next GTG Meeting**: July 29-31; Anchorage, AK