**FPA Early Adopter Weekly Conference Call Notes**

**July 23, 2008**

Agenda in a Nutshell:

-   Roll call, news & recap

-   Calendar of future topics

-   Demo: FWA: dispatch location associations, dispatch delays,
    attributes

-   Questions from Early Adopters

At a glance:

+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| PM Input  | These were sent out last week. They have the             |
| Spr       | Pre-analysis information that you entered in PM. Some of |
| eadsheets | this information will be useful in the analysis you're   |
|           | currently working on. If you did not receive the         |
|           | spreadsheet, please contact your mentor.                 |
+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Calendar  | We now have a calendar with topics for future weekly     |
|           | calls -- will send it out with these notes               |
+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Demo: FWA | This week we walked through the FWA entries for:         |
|           |                                                          |
|           | -   Dispatch Associations                                |
|           |                                                          |
|           | -   Define Delays                                        |
|           |                                                          |
|           | -   Attributes                                           |
+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| A         | -   Understanding Delays in Fire Program Analysis (FPA)  |
| pplicable |     Initial Response Simulation (IRS) Module:            |
| White     |     <http://www.fpa.nifc.gov/Libr                        |
| Papers    | ary/Papers/Docs/FPA_2/WP_IRS_Delays_3_20_2008_final.pdf> |
+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Next      | Wednesday, July 30^th^. Topics will be **Dispatch        |
| Call:     | Logic**.                                                 |
+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| "H        | Please read the following White Paper prior to next      |
| omework": | week's meeting:                                          |
|           | <http://www.fpa.nifc.gov/Library/P                       |
|           | apers/Docs/FPA_2/WP_Dsptch_Logic_IRS_03_03_08_final.pdf> |
+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| We say:   | **Thanks for being an Early Adopter!!!**                 |
+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------+

**Detailed Notes:**

+----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Sue Weber,     | -   When you log into the FPA system, you may have  |
| News & Recap   |     noticed the URL is different. The system in now |
|                |     working on a new server at EROS. However, don't |
|                |     change your current shortcut or bookmark --     |
|                |     stick with                                      |
|                |                                                     |
|                |   <http://fpa.nwcg.gov/FPA/jsps/login/FPALogin.jsf> |
|                |     and the system will redirect you to the proper  |
|                |     server. You're working on the FPA production    |
|                |     site where the final software will be located;  |
|                |     the prototypes are working on the staging site  |
|                |     -- which is where we do the testing.            |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   Access rules and roles -- We will continue to   |
|                |     have 3 roles as we did in PM: admin, editor, &  |
|                |     reader. However at this time only the editor    |
|                |     role is enabled. We have to assign editor       |
|                |     access from here in Boise. All 3 roles should   |
|                |     be working in September, and then the           |
|                |     administrator for each FPU will be able to      |
|                |     assign access. But, the bottom line is that the |
|                |     FPU still controls who has access to your data  |
|                |     and if you need anyone added, please contact    |
|                |     your mentor.                                    |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   PM input spreadsheets were sent out last week   |
|                |     -- you should have those                        |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   Status spreadsheets (who has sent in what) will |
|                |     be sent out soon.                               |
+----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Sue Weber      | Developed a calendar showing topics to be discussed |
|                | on the Early Adopter calls. Will send this out to   |
|                | you with the notes.                                 |
+----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Cal Gale       | Demo on the system (FWA Attributes)                 |
|                |                                                     |
|                | ***Note: In order to stay within our one hour       |
|                | timeframe, we will skip discussing Dispatch Logic   |
|                | until next week.***                                 |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   When you log in you should see a message that   |
|                |     says this is the FPA production system at EROS. |
|                |     The URL has changed, but [don't]{.underline}    |
|                |     change your bookmark -- continue to use your    |
|                |     original login URL.                             |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   Once your FWA shapefiles have been imported     |
|                |     into the system, you will see your list of      |
|                |     dispatch locations.                             |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   Look Under **FWA/Dispatch Associations**.   |
|                |         This is where you associate your dispatch   |
|                |         locations (DL) to the FWAs.                 |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   The FWAs are shown in a hierarchical order. |
|                |         At the top is the FPU. Beneath that are the |
|                |         FMUs and the FWAs follow beneath their      |
|                |         respective FMU.                             |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   You can globally assign all DLs to all FWAs |
|                |         by going into the FPU (at the top of the    |
|                |         list) and clicking on **Edit**, and then    |
|                |         **check all**. You will get a message       |
|                |         saying "***All FWAs in the FPU will be      |
|                |         updated to reflect all the field values     |
|                |         exactly as you entered them...."*** This is |
|                |         a quick way to get started. Then you can go |
|                |         to the individual FWAs under each FMU and   |
|                |         refine your associations by un-clicking     |
|                |         those DLs that won't be used to dispatch    |
|                |         from. You can do a global assignment at the |
|                |         FPU level as well.                          |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   **FWA/Define Delays**: Assigning dispatch       |
|                |     delays have a similar global assign process.    |
|                |     You can globally assign delays for the entire   |
|                |     FPU, or for each FMU, or you can go thru the    |
|                |     FWAs individually. These delays are assigned by |
|                |     fire resource category.                         |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   You can cross reference to your PM pre-analysis |
|                |     to see what you used for delays in the first    |
|                |     analysis.                                       |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   The **Post-Contained Fire Used** delay applies  |
|                |     if a resource is used on a fire. You will enter |
|                |     the time in minutes it generally takes for a    |
|                |     resource to return to its dispatch location,    |
|                |     re-supply, and be available for another         |
|                |     dispatch.                                       |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   For the **Post-Contained Fire Unused** Delay -- |
|                |     this reflects the delay for resources that were |
|                |     dispatched to a fire and NOT used. You will     |
|                |     want to enter the time it generally takes for a |
|                |     resource to return to its dispatch location and |
|                |     be ready for the next fire. Since it was not    |
|                |     used on the fire, it should not have to         |
|                |     re-supply.                                      |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   **Post-Escaped fire** delay is used if a fire   |
|                |     event becomes an Exceeds Simulation Limits      |
|                |     (ESL) fire. It is the delay time for a resource |
|                |     to return to station, re-supply and be ready    |
|                |     for its next fire dispatch. But, remember that  |
|                |     on an ESL fire, resources will have been        |
|                |     fighting that fire for the period of time you   |
|                |     enter as ESL time (this is entered in           |
|                |     **FWAs/Attributes**) so you will want to        |
|                |     consider your local work/rest guidelines when   |
|                |     you enter the Post-escaped fire delay.          |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   **Reload Delays** -- (you should be able to use |
|                |     the info you generated for the PM analysis) --  |
|                |     applies only to scoopers, SEATs, engines, and   |
|                |     helicopters. It represents the typical time in  |
|                |     minutes for a producer type to depart a fire    |
|                |     event, refill, and return to the fire event.    |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   **First Unit Delay** should include the time    |
|                |     (in minutes) to size up the fire situation,     |
|                |     perhaps time to open gates, cut fences, etc.,   |
|                |     identify escape routes, etc. so it may take     |
|                |     them a little longer to get started than the    |
|                |     next resources arriving at the scene.           |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   If you cannot use a certain category of fire    |
|                |     resources in an FWA (due to restrictions,       |
|                |     constraints, etc.) then do not enter any value  |
|                |     under the delays -- this is especially          |
|                |     important on the walk-in delays.                |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   These are things that need to be coordinated    |
|                |     among your partners in the FPU.                 |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   **Fire Attributes** -- Once again you can       |
|                |     globally apply this by starting at the FPU      |
|                |     level, hitting the **edit** button, fill out    |
|                |     the information, and hit **save**. A lot of the |
|                |     entries should apply across many, if not all,   |
|                |     FWAs -- such as discovery size, ESL time, and   |
|                |     ESL acres.                                      |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   The PM pre-analysis spreadsheets should be  |
|                |         useful in this section.                     |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   Enter the "exceeds simulation limits" **ESL |
|                |         time** (in minutes). The max is 9,999       |
|                |         minutes. It has a default value of 1080     |
|                |         minutes (18 hours). This would be the       |
|                |         amount of time that a fire typically grows  |
|                |         before it escapes initial response. This    |
|                |         can vary based on things such as fuel       |
|                |         types, resource values, proximity to areas  |
|                |         of concern, etc.                            |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   **ESL acres** -- This has a default value   |
|                |         of 300 acres but you can change that. You   |
|                |         may have some guidance in your FMP/LMP/RMP  |
|                |         relating to this. This also reflects the    |
|                |         typical size a fire that escapes initial    |
|                |         response.                                   |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   Keep in mind that if you enter too short of |
|                |         an ESL time or too small of ESL acres,      |
|                |         compared to the rate of spread, fire        |
|                |         resource arrival time, and production rate, |
|                |         could result in a bunch of uncontained      |
|                |         fires that don't reflect reality.           |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   **Percent Head Attack** -- There may be     |
|                |         some conditions where you could attack a    |
|                |         fire at the head as opposed to the tail --  |
|                |         if so, show what percent of the time you    |
|                |         would do that. Tip: if a head attack fails  |
|                |         in the model, the fire will be rerun using  |
|                |         a tail attack.                              |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   **Percent Tail attack** -- show what        |
|                |         percent of time you attack a fire from the  |
|                |         tail.                                       |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   **Parallel attack & distance** -- typically |
|                |         how far from the fire edge would you be     |
|                |         building line?                              |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   Need to have an entry in all three blocks,  |
|                |         a zero is acceptable..                      |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   Also you will need to check **Aerial drops  |
|                |         ok** if they are allowed.                   |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   **FWA Attributes**:                             |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   **Walk-in %:** What percent of your fires   |
|                |         are walked into as opposed to driven to?    |
|                |         Your PM pre-analysis reports have this      |
|                |         information.                                |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   **Air to ground coefficient** allows the    |
|                |         system to take the air miles (straight      |
|                |         line) from a dispatch location to a travel  |
|                |         time point (TTP) and convert them into      |
|                |         ground miles, which is used to calculate    |
|                |         ground based travel time. It takes the      |
|                |         straight line air mile distance from DL to  |
|                |         TTP and applies a factor that you enter, to |
|                |         adjust the distance it takes when you're    |
|                |         traveling on roads. We have found that 1.6  |
|                |         factor works well in many locations. That   |
|                |         means for a ten mile air distance, it is    |
|                |         about a 16 mile distance on the ground.     |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   **Damaging FIL** -- This is a pull down     |
|                |         with groupings of Fire Intensity Levels.    |
|                |         The intent is to show how much of a fire    |
|                |         intensity level is acceptable before you've |
|                |         done significant damage to your habitat.    |
|                |         Generally speaking, you don't want any fire |
|                |         above that FIL. This may be something       |
|                |         articulated in your FMP or RMP/LMP.         |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   **WFU Attributes**:                             |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   **Note: you will see some changes to this   |
|                |         screen in the future. ERC will be disabled  |
|                |         and 2 new values: ROS Max and FIL max will  |
|                |         be included.**                              |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   **Also this information is available from   |
|                |         your PM pre-analysis report.**              |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   Is WFU approved for that FWA? If so, click  |
|                |         on the **checkbox**.                        |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   If so, enter the Burn Index- **BI Max       |
|                |         Value** where fire events that exceed this  |
|                |         value are no longer considered as potential |
|                |         WFU.                                        |
|                |                                                     |
|                |     -   **Ignitions (%)** Portray the percent of    |
|                |         ignitions that should be modeled. This is   |
|                |         applied to those fire events that are below |
|                |         the BI Max value. The fire managers that    |
|                |         deal with WFU events in your FPU should     |
|                |         have a feel for what this percent is. Ask   |
|                |         yourself "of those fires that become        |
|                |         candidates for WFU, what percent of them    |
|                |         actually becomes a WFU event?"              |
|                |                                                     |
|                | -   **Diurnal Rate of spread adjustment** is not    |
|                |     operational yet, but when enabled, it will      |
|                |     allow the planner to adjust the calculated rate |
|                |     of spread for the hour specified.               |
+----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Questions:     |                                                     |
+----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Air-to-Ground  | Q: On the air-to-ground coefficient, you could do   |
| Coefficient    | an analysis in GIS -- however I don't know where    |
|                | the travel time points (TTP) are located. Even just |
|                | the lat/long would be helpful. I need this to make  |
|                | sure we have a reasonable air-to-ground conversion. |
|                |                                                     |
|                | A: At this point, we don't have a report that shows |
|                | the calculated travel time point in the system. We  |
|                | will see if we can get this available to you. We    |
|                | may be able to add it into a pre-analysis report.   |
|                | Looking at eventually giving you the ability to     |
|                | adjust travel time similar to how it was done in PM |
|                | -- not sure when that will be there.                |
|                |                                                     |
|                | Q: Why is the air-to-ground coefficient applied to  |
|                | the FWA when resources are dispatched from a        |
|                | location that is outside the FWA? It seems like it  |
|                | should depend on which dispatch location the        |
|                | resource comes from.                                |
|                |                                                     |
|                | A: The FWA's coefficient is applied on the distance |
|                | from the DL to the TTP, even if the DL is outside   |
|                | the FWA. It would extremely difficult to model and  |
|                | time consuming to capture a separate coefficient    |
|                | for every dispatch location to FWA travel time      |
|                | point -- so we chose to capture it at the FWA level |
|                | instead. This should be adequate for a strategic    |
|                | analysis.                                           |
|                |                                                     |
|                | Q: The air-to-ground ratio -- most of our ratios    |
|                | will be in the 4, 5, or 6 to1 -- will that be a     |
|                | problem?                                            |
|                |                                                     |
|                | A: No. But do some checking to make sure your       |
|                | assumptions are good. If you have a straight line   |
|                | distance between a DL and a TTP of 50 miles, and    |
|                | you have an 8 to 1 ratio, you're talking about 400  |
|                | miles of ground travel to get there. The key will   |
|                | be to know the location of the TTP to make sure you |
|                | aren't generally over or under stating. Since we    |
|                | don't have that TTP information available for you   |
|                | at this time, take a guess about where the center   |
|                | of your FWA is, and ask yourself does your ground   |
|                | distance make sense.                                |
+----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Modeling       | Q: When a resource is assigned to an incident, it   |
| versus reality | has to return to its DL before going to another     |
|                | fire. We don't do business that way, so what's the  |
|                | logic behind that?                                  |
|                |                                                     |
|                | A: For modeling, the system doesn't know spatially  |
|                | where the fire resource is (remember, the travel    |
|                | time point does not actually exist). It only knows  |
|                | the DL. It's up to you to decide typically about    |
|                | how much time it takes for a resource to be         |
|                | available for the next fire.                        |
+----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Standardized   | Q: I'm concerned about the Type 6 Engine average    |
| Travel Speeds  | speed of 45 miles/hour. Our speed is about half     |
|                | that.                                               |
|                |                                                     |
|                | A: These values (speed of travel) are fixed within  |
|                | the system. You can see these speeds on the **Input |
|                | Data/Define Resources/Resource Producer Type        |
|                | Table** screen.                                     |
|                |                                                     |
|                | ***Note: a future update will allow you to override |
|                | the arrival time that is generated by the           |
|                | standardized travel speeds.***                      |
+----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Damaging FIL   | Q: For the FWA attribute of damaging FIL, it seems  |
|                | the relationship of the FIL to FPA Performance      |
|                | Measure #3 is very important. How does it affect    |
|                | this performance measure?                           |
|                |                                                     |
|                | Are we just talking about objectives tied to fuel   |
|                | management and hazard abatement?                    |
|                |                                                     |
|                | A: No, it's not that restrictive -- it has a more   |
|                | generic effect. As you set up your thresholds for   |
|                | FWA -- say you have historic structures and you     |
|                | don't want any damage. In the Large Fire Module, we |
|                | calculate the probability of you getting damage in  |
|                | that FWA. This could also apply to your T& E        |
|                | species, etc. Your entry in the IRS module          |
|                | (Damaging FIL) is used in the #3 performance        |
|                | measure for acres burned at or below threshold that |
|                | you set up. Anything below is non-damaging. We      |
|                | can't go smaller than an FWA because the only       |
|                | polygons we know of are the FWA. We plan on         |
|                | changing the drop down from groupings of feet (0-2  |
|                | feet, 2.1 -- 4 feet, etc...) to 0-6 for FIL. A zero |
|                | says all fires are bad in that FWA and a 6 is all   |
|                | fires are good in the FWA.                          |
+----------------+-----------------------------------------------------+