United States General Accounting Office 

September 2003 

GAO Report to Congressional Requesters

GAO-03-1047 

GEOSPATIAL 

INFORMATION 

Technologies Hold 

Promise for Wildland 

Fire Management, but 

Challenges Remain 
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Geospatial information technologies—sensors, systems, and software that 

collect, manage, manipulate, analyze, model, and display information about 

locations on the earth’s surface—can aid in managing wildland fires by 

providing accurate, detailed, and timely information to federal, state, and 

local decision makers; fire-fighting personnel; and the public. This 

information can be used to help reduce the risk that a fire will become 

uncontrollable, to respond to critical events while a fire is burning, and to 

aid in recovering from fire disasters. 

However, there are multiple challenges to effectively using these 

technologies to manage wildland fires, including challenges with data, 

systems, infrastructure, staffing, and the effective use of new products. The 

National Wildfire Coordinating Group—composed of representatives from 

the five land management agencies and from other federal, state, and tribal 

organizations—has several initiatives under way to address specific 

challenges, but progress on these initiatives has been slow, and not all of the 

challenges are being addressed. A root cause of many of these challenges is 

the lack of an overall strategy guiding interagency management of 

information resources and technology. To improve interagency management 

of information resources and technology, different teams within the 

Coordinating Group plan to establish an interagency geospatial strategic 

plan, a strategy for information resources management, and an interagency 

enterprise architecture—a blueprint for operational and technical change in 

support of wildland fire management. However, these efforts lack the seniorlevel endorsement and detailed plans and milestones necessary for success. 

Until effective interagency management of information resources and 

technology is a priority, the wildland fire community will likely continue to 

face challenges in effectively using geospatial information technologies. 

Effectively using geospatial information is of interest beyond the wildland 

fire management community. Detailed, accurate, and accessible geospatial 

information is critical in addressing homeland security and national 

preparedness, supporting our transportation infrastructure, and managing 

natural resources, among other activities. For decades, the federal 

government has tried to reduce duplicative geospatial data collection by 

coordinating activities inside and outside the federal government. Most 

recently, Geospatial One-Stop, one of 25 high profile e-government initiatives 

sponsored by the Office of Management and Budget, was initiated to develop 

national geospatial data standards and an Internet portal for locating 

geospatial data. While this and other initiatives hold promise, achieving a 

nationwide network of geospatial data remains a formidable challenge. 

GAO focused on the five federal agencies that are primarily responsible for 

wildland fire management: the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service 

and the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service, Bureau of Land 

Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

Over the past decade, a series of 

devastating and deadly wildland 

fires has burned millions of acres 

of federal forests, grasslands, and 

deserts each year, requiring federal 

land management agencies to 

spend hundreds of millions of 

dollars to fight them. GAO was 

asked to assess opportunities to 

improve the way agencies manage 

fires through the use of geospatial 

information technologies, 

specifically, to (1) identify key 

geospatial information 

technologies for addressing 

different aspects of managing 

wildland fires, (2) summarize key 

challenges to the effective use of 

geospatial technologies in 

managing wildland fires, and 

(3) identify national opportunities 

to improve the effective use of 

geospatial technologies. 

GAO is making a series of 

recommendations to address 

specific challenges in effectively 

using geospatial information 

technologies and to improve the 

management of information 

resources and technologies in the 

interagency wildland fire 

management community. 

Commenting on a draft of this 

report, the Departments of 

Agriculture and the Interior agreed 

with the report’s conclusions and 

recommendations. 

Note: The graphics in this report 

are in color and are best viewed 

electronically. 

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-1047 

To view the full product, including the scope 

and methodology, click on the link above. For 

more information, contact David Powner at 

(202) 512-9286 or pownerd@gao.gov. 

Highlights of GAO-03-1047, a report to 

congressional requesters 

September 2003

GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION 

Technologies Hold Promise for Wildland 

Fire Management, but Challenges Remain 
Page i GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Contents 

Letter 1

Results in Brief 2

Background 5

Numerous Geospatial Technologies Can Be Used to 

Address Different Aspects of Wildland Fire Management 12

The Wildland Fire Community Faces Numerous Challenges 

in Using Geospatial Information Technologies 

Effectively; More Must Be Done to Address These 

Challenges 30

New National Efforts to Improve the Use of Geospatial 

Information Are Promising, but Challenges to Effective 

Data Sharing Remain 37

Conclusions 40

Recommendations 41

Agency Comments 42

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 44

Appendix II: Major Wildland Fire Policies, Plans, Reports, and Initiatives 48

Appendix III: Federal, State, and Local Entities with Land Management, Technology, or 

Other Fire-Related Roles 52

Federal Departments and Agencies 52

State, Local, and Other Associations and Committees 54

Appendix IV: Remote Sensing Systems 57

Appendix V: Examples of Applications with Geospatial Components Supporting 

Wildland Fire Management 60

Appendix VI: Comments from the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior 66

Appendix VII: GAO Contacts and Acknowledgments 68

GAO Contacts 68

Acknowledgments 68

Glossary 69
Page ii GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figures 

Figure 1: Wildland Fire Management Activities ..................................... 6

Figure 2: Acres of Land Managed by Federal Land Management 

Agencies...................................................................................... 7

Figure 3: National Wildfire Coordinating Group: Member 

Organizations ............................................................................ 9

Figure 4: Members of the Wildland Fire Leadership Council............10

Figure 5: Overview of the Flow of Data Among Key Geospatial 

Information Technologies and Resulting Products of 

These Technologies................................................................15

Figure 6: Vegetation Map, Rocky Mountain Region, Colorado, 

August 1999.............................................................................17

Figure 7: Fire Hazard Map, Rocky Mountain Region, Colorado, 

August 1999.............................................................................18

Figure 8: National Wildland Fire Outlook..............................................19

Figure 9: Fire Danger Map ........................................................................20

Figure 10: Satellite Images of Fires in the Northwestern United 

States, July 21, 2003...............................................................21

Figure 11: Satellite Image Showing Early Fire Perimeters for the 

Rodeo and Chediski Fires, Arizona, June 2002................22

Figure 12: An Aerial Infrared Image and Resulting Fire 

Perimeter Map, September 2001..........................................23

Figure 13: Output of a Fire Behavior Model..........................................24

Figure 14: Internet-Based Maps of Active Fires ...................................25

Figure 15: Burn Severity Map, Hayman Fire, June 2002.....................27

Tables 

Table 1: Key Geospatial Technologies ...................................................13

Table 2: Characteristics of Selected Remote Sensing Systems.........58

Table 3: Examples of Operational Applications ..................................60

Table 4: Examples of Developmental Applications ............................64

Abbreviations 

BIA Bureau of Indian Affairs 

BLM Bureau of Land Management 

FGDC Federal Geographic Data Committee 

FS Forest Service 

FWS Fish and Wildlife Service 

GIS geographic information system 

IRM information resource management 

IT information technology 
Page iii GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer 

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

NPS National Park Service 

NWCG National Wildfire Coordinating Group 

USGS U.S. Geological Survey 
Page 1 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Letter 

September 23, 2003 

The Honorable Mark Udall 

House of Representatives 

The Honorable Joel Hefley 

House of Representatives 

Over the past decade, there has been a series of devastating and 

deadly wildland fires on federal lands. Fires like these burn 

millions of acres of forests, grasslands, and deserts each year, 

requiring federal land management agencies to spend hundreds of 

millions of dollars to fight them. Wildland fires also threaten 

communities that are near federal lands. During the 2002 fire 

season, approximately 88,458 wildland fires burned about 6.9 

million acres and cost the federal government over $1.6 billion to 

suppress. These fires destroyed timber, natural vegetation, wildlife 

habitats, homes, and businesses, and they severely damaged forest 

soils and watershed areas for decades to come. The 2002 fires also 

caused the deaths of 23 firefighters and drove thousands of people 

from their homes. Only 2 years earlier, during the 2000 fire season, 

approximately 123,000 fires had burned more than 8.4 million 

acres and cost the federal government over $2 billion. 

Geospatial information technologies—sensors, systems, and 

software that collect, manage, manipulate, analyze, model, and 

display information about locations on the earth’s surface—can aid 

in managing wildland fires by providing accurate, detailed, and 

timely information to federal, state, and local decision makers; firefighting personnel; and the public. This information can be used to 

help reduce the risk that a fire will become uncontrollable, to 

respond to critical events while a fire is burning, and to aid in 

recovering from fire disasters. 

Concerned with recent wildland fires, you asked us to assess 

opportunities to improve the way agencies manage fires through 

the use of geospatial information technologies. Specifically, our 

objectives were to (1) identify key geospatial information 

technologies for addressing different aspects of wildland fire 

management, (2) summarize key challenges to the effective use of 
Page 2 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

geospatial technologies in wildland fire management, and 

(3) identify national opportunities to improve the effective use of 

geospatial technologies. 

To accomplish these objectives, we focused our review on the five 

key federal agencies that are primarily responsible for wildland fire 

management on public lands: the Department of Agriculture’s 

Forest Service and the Department of the Interior’s National Park 

Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and 

Bureau of Indian Affairs. To address the final objective, we also 

reviewed national efforts to improve the use of geospatial 

information, undertaken by the Office of Management and Budget 

and the Federal Geographic Data Committee. We conducted our 

work between October 2002 and September 2003 in accordance 

with generally accepted government auditing standards. Appendix I 

contains further details on our objectives, scope, and methodology. 

Key terms are defined in the glossary. 

Results in Brief 

Numerous geospatial information technologies are currently 

available, in use, or under development that can aid in wildland fire 

management. These technologies include remote sensing systems, 

the Global Positioning System, geographic information systems 

(GIS), and specialized software for modeling and visualizing 

locations and events. Land management agencies are using 

geospatial technologies in a number of different ways, ranging 

from mapping vegetation and dangerous accumulations of fuel, to 

identifying the perimeter and behavior of active fires, to mapping 

burned areas for rehabilitation. However, the extent to which these 

technologies are currently being used is not fully known. 

There are multiple challenges to effectively using geospatial 

technologies—all complicated by the fact that wildland fire 

management extends beyond a single agency’s responsibility and 

requires a collaborative interagency approach. Key challenges 

include issues with the following: 

• Data: Geospatial data are not consistently available and are not 

compatible across different agencies, states, and local entities. As a 

result, decision makers often lack the timely, integrated 

information they need to make sound decisions in managing 

different aspects of wildland fire. 
Page 3 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

• Systems: Agencies have developed multiple, duplicative systems to 

address local or agency-specific needs. As a result, many similar 

systems are not interoperable. Also, there is no single 

comprehensive inventory of the systems used to support wildland 

fire management. 

• Infrastructure: GIS specialists do not consistently have access to 

the equipment, communications infrastructure, and Internet when 

and where they need them to address wildland fires. As a result, 

these specialists often have difficulty in obtaining and 

manipulating geospatial data and in producing geospatial maps at 

remote fire sites. 

• Staffing: The training and qualifications of the GIS specialists who 

work on wildland fires are not consistent, resulting in major 

differences in these individuals’ capabilities. 

• New products: While new products and services are available to 

support wildland fire management, commercial vendors expressed 

concern that the fire community is not aware of these products. 

Land management agencies noted that the cost of commercial 

products can be prohibitive and that licensing restrictions can keep 

local land units from sharing data with others in the wildland fire 

community. 

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group—comprising 

representatives from the five land management agencies and from 

other federal, state, and tribal organizations—has several initiatives 

under way to address specific challenges to using geospatial 

information technologies, but progress on these initiatives has 

been slow, and these initiatives do not address all of the 

challenges. A root cause of many of these challenges is the lack of 

an overall strategy guiding interagency management of information 

resources and technologies. Currently, different teams within the 

Coordinating Group are planning initiatives to improve the 

interagency management of information resources and technology. 

Focusing specifically on geospatial technologies, one interagency 

team has proposed developing an interagency strategic plan for 

using geospatial technologies to support wildland fire 

management. Another interagency team developed a draft 

Information Resource Management (IRM) strategy that provides 

high-level objectives for interagency IRM management. At a broader 

level, another interagency team plans to develop an enterprise 

architecture—a blueprint for operational and technological change 

in support of wildland fire management. However, these efforts 

lack the senior-level endorsement and the detailed plans and 
Page 4 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

milestones necessary for success. Until effective interagency 

management of information technologies becomes a priority, the 

wildland fire community will likely continue to face challenges in 

effectively using geospatial technologies. 

Effectively using geospatial information is of interest beyond the 

wildland fire management community. Detailed, accurate, and 

accessible geospatial information is critical in addressing homeland 

security and national preparedness, supporting our transportation 

infrastructure, managing natural resources, and carrying out the 

national census—among other activities. For decades, the federal 

government has tried to reduce duplicative geospatial data 

collection by coordinating GIS activities within and outside the 

federal government. Most recently, the E-Government Act of 2002 

called for common protocols for geographic information systems 

in order to reduce redundant data collection and information and 

to promote collaboration and use of standards for government 

geographic information.1

 To improve the use of geospatial data, the 

Office of Management and Budget initiated Geospatial One-Stop, a 

project to develop an Internet portal for locating geospatial data 

and to develop national geospatial data standards. While this and 

other initiatives hold promise, achieving the vision of a nationwide 

network of geospatial data remains a formidable challenge. We 

recently reported that a much more substantial effort will be 

required to attain the broader vision of seamless integration of GIS 

data nationwide—and that this effort will probably have to 

continue over an extended period of time.2 

We are making recommendations to the Secretaries of Agriculture 

and the Interior to address specific challenges in effectively using 

geospatial technologies and to improve the management of 

information resources and technologies in the interagency wildland 

fire management community. In commenting on a draft of this 

report, the departments agreed with the report’s conclusions and 

recommendations, and noted that staff from the two departments 

will be tasked with developing an action plan to address our 

findings and the broader issue of geospatial needs for wildland fire 

management. 

 

1

 Sec. 216, P.L. 107-347, December 17, 2002. 

2

 U.S. General Accounting Office, Geographic Information Systems: Challenges to Effective 

Data Sharing, GAO-03-874T (Washington, D.C.: June 10, 2003). 
Page 5 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Background 

Wildland Fire Management Life Cycle: An Overview 

Effectively managing wildland fires can be viewed in terms of a life 

cycle—there are key activities that can be performed before a fire 

starts to reduce the risk of its becoming uncontrollable; other 

activities that can take place during a fire to detect the fire before 

it gets too large and to respond to it; and still others that can be 

performed after a fire has stopped in order to stabilize, 

rehabilitate, and restore damaged forests and rangelands. Prefire 

activities can include identifying areas that are at risk for wildland 

fire by assessing changes in vegetation and the accumulation of 

fuels (including small trees, underbrush, and dead vegetation), as 

well as these fuels’ proximity to communities; taking action to 

reduce fuels through a variety of mechanisms (including timber 

harvesting, management-ignited or prescribed fires, mechanical 

thinning, and use of natural fires); and monitoring fire weather 

conditions. Other activities during this phase can include providing 

fire preparedness training and strategically deploying equipment 

and personnel resources to at-risk areas. 

Activities that take place during a fire include detecting fires, 

dispatching resources, planning the initial attack on the fire, 

monitoring and mapping the fire’s spread and behavior, and 

planning and managing subsequent attacks on the fire—if they are 

warranted. Postfire activities can include assessing the impact of 

the fire; providing emergency stabilization of burned areas to 

protect life, property, and natural resources from postfire 

degradation, such as flooding, contamination of a watershed area, 

and surface erosion; rehabilitating lands to remove fire debris, 

repair soils, and plant new vegetation; and monitoring the 

rehabilitation efforts over time to ensure that they are on track. 

Other activities—such as enhancing community awareness—can 

and should take place throughout the fire management life cycle. 

Figure 1 depicts a fire management life cycle, with key activities in 

each phase. 
Page 6 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 1: Wildland Fire Management Activities

Federal Land Management Responsibilities 

Five federal agencies share responsibility for managing the 

majority of our nation’s federal lands—the Department of 

Agriculture’s Forest Service (FS) and the Department of the 

Interior’s National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management 

(BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and Bureau of Indian Affairs 

(BIA). While each agency has a different mission and responsibility 

for different areas and types of land, they work together to address 

catastrophic wildland fires, which often cross agency boundaries. 

In addition, state, local, and tribal governments and private 

individuals own thousands of acres that are adjacent to federal 

lands and are similarly susceptible to wildland fires. Figure 2 

shows the number of acres of land managed by each of the five 

federal agencies. 
Page 7 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 2: Acres of Land Managed by Federal Land Management Agencies 

The National Fire Plan 

After years of catastrophic fires, in September 2000, the 

Departments of Agriculture and the Interior jointly issued a report 

on managing the impact of wildland fires. This report forms the 

basis of what is now known as the National Fire Plan—a long-term 

multibillion-dollar effort to address the nation’s risk of wildland 

fires. The plan directs funding and attention to five key initiatives: 

• Hazardous fuels reduction—investing in projects to reduce the 

buildup of fuels that leads to severe fires. 

• Firefighting—ensuring adequate preparedness for future fires by 

acquiring and maintaining personnel and equipment and by placing 

firefighting resources in locations where they can most effectively 

be used to respond to fires.

• Rehabilitation and restoration—restoring landscapes and 

rebuilding ecosystems that have been damaged by wildland fires.

• Community assistance—working directly with communities to 

ensure that they are adequately protected from fires.

• Accountability—establishing mechanisms to oversee and track 

progress in implementing the National Fire Plan, which includes 

developing performance measures, processes for reporting 

progress, and budgeting information. 

A key tenet of the National Fire Plan is coordination between 

government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels to 

develop strategies and carry out programs. Building on this goal of 

cooperation, the five land management agencies have worked with 
Page 8 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

state governors and other stakeholders to develop a comprehensive 

strategy and an implementation plan for managing wildland fires, 

hazardous fuels, and ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation on 

federal and adjacent state, tribal, and private forest and rangelands 

in the United States. Appendix II provides a summary of the major 

federal policies, plans, reports, and initiatives on managing 

wildland fires and how they are related. In developing these 

integrated plans and initiatives, the land management agencies 

identified other federal agencies that have roles in wildland fire 

management: agencies that manage other federal lands, including 

the Department of Defense and Department of Energy; agencies 

that research, manage, or use technologies that can aid in wildland 

fire management, including the Department of the Interior’s U.S. 

Geological Survey, the National Aeronautical and Space 

Administration, the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic 

and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Defense’s 

National Imagery and Mapping Agency; and agencies with other 

fire-related responsibilities, including the Department of Homeland 

Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and the 

Environmental Protection Agency. The integrated plans also 

identify key state and local organizations that may collaborate on 

wildland fire management. Appendix III identifies key federal, 

state, and local organizations and their roles in wildland fire 

management. 

An Interagency Framework Supports the National Fire Plan 

Over the past four decades, the Departments of Agriculture and the 

Interior have established an interagency framework to handle 

wildland fire management—a framework that currently supports 

the National Fire Plan. In 1965, the Forest Service and the Bureau of 

Land Management established the National Interagency Fire Center 

in Boise, Idaho. The Fire Center is the nation’s principal 

management and logistical support center for wildland firefighting 

and now includes the five land management agencies, the National 

Weather Service, and the Department of the Interior’s Office of 

Aircraft Services. The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal 

Emergency Management Agency and the National Association of 

State Foresters also have a presence at the center. Working 

together, representatives from this mix of organizations exchange 

fire protection information and training services and coordinate 

and support operations for managing wildland fire incidents while 

they are occurring, throughout the United States. 
Page 9 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

In 1976, the departments established the National Wildfire 

Coordinating Group to coordinate government standards for 

wildland fire management and related programs, in order to avoid 

duplicating the various agencies’ efforts and to encourage active 

collaboration among entities. This group comprises representatives 

from the five land management agencies and from other federal, 

state, and tribal organizations. Figure 3 identifies these member 

organizations. The coordinating group seeks to foster more 

effective execution of each agency’s fire management program 

through agreements on common training, equipment, and other 

standards; however, each agency determines whether and how it 

will adopt the group’s proposals. The group is organized into 15 

working teams, which focus on issues that include information 

resource management (IRM), fire equipment, training, fire weather, 

and wildland fire education. Most recently, the coordinating group 

established the IRM program management office to further support 

the IRM working team by developing guidance and products. In 

addition, the IRM working team has established two subgroups to 

focus on specific issues involving geospatial information and data 

administration. 

Figure 3: National Wildfire Coordinating Group: Member Organizations 

In recent years, we have reported that despite these interagency 

efforts, the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior had 

not established clearly defined and effective leadership for 

ensuring collaboration and coordination among the organizations 

that respond to wildland fires.3

 Further, the National Academy of 

Public Administration recommended that the Secretaries of 

 

3

 U.S. General Accounting Office, The National Fire Plan: Federal Agencies Are Not 

Organized to Effectively and Efficiently Implement the Plan, GAO-01-1022T (Washington, 

D.C.: July 31, 2001); Severe Wildland Fires: Leadership and Accountability Needed to 

Reduce Risks to Communities and Resources, GAO-02-259 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 31, 

2002); Wildland Fire Management: Improved Planning Will Help Agencies Better Identify 

Fire-Fighting Preparedness Needs, GAO-02-158 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 29, 2002). 
Page 10 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Agriculture and the Interior establish a national interagency council 

to achieve more consistent and coordinated efforts in 

implementing national fire policies and plans.4 In response to these 

concerns, in April 2002, the departments established the Wildland 

Fire Leadership Council. This council comprises senior members of 

both departments and of key external organizations; it is charged 

with providing active, visible interagency leadership and 

coordination and consistent, integrated policy direction to the land 

management agencies regarding wildland fire management. 

Figure 4 identifies members of the Leadership Council. 

Figure 4: Members of the Wildland Fire Leadership Council 

Accurate information about specific locations is critical to all of the 

activities in wildland fire management. To manage information that 

extends beyond organizational boundaries in support of a common 

mission—such as the wildland fire mission—it is useful to view 

these activities within the context of the information technology 

management discipline of enterprise architecture management. 

Enterprise Architecture: A Brief Description 

If properly developed, an enterprise architecture provides a clear 

and comprehensive picture of an entity, whether it is an 

organization (for example, a federal department, agency, or bureau) 

 

4

 Frank Fairbanks, Henry Gardner, Elizabeth Hill, Keith Mulrooney, Charles Philpot, Karl 

Weick, and Charles Wise, Managing Wildland Fire: Enhancing Capacity to Implement the 

Federal Interagency Policy (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Public Administration, 

December 2001). 
Page 11 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

or a functional or mission area that cuts across more than one 

organization (for example, grant management, homeland security, 

or wildland fire management). These architectures are recognized 

as essential tools for effectively and efficiently engineering 

business operations and the systems and databases that are 

needed to support these operations. 

Enterprise architectures are systemically derived and captured 

blueprints or descriptions—in useful models, diagrams, and 

narrative—of the mode of operation for a given enterprise. This 

mode of operation is described in both (1) logical terms, such as 

interrelated business processes and business rules, information 

needs and flows, data models, work locations, and users, and 

(2) technical terms, such as hardware, software, data, 

communications, and security attributes and performance 

standards. They provide these perspectives both for the 

enterprise’s current, or “as is,” environment and for its target, or 

“to be,” environment, as well as a transition plan for moving from 

the “as is” to the “to be” environment. 

Using enterprise architectures is a basic tenet of effective 

information technology (IT) management, embodied in federal 

guidance and commercial best practices.5

 We recently issued an 

executive guide for improving enterprise architecture 

management.6 When developed and used properly, these 

architectures define both business operations and the underlying 

IT infrastructure that supports these operations in a way that 

optimizes interdependencies and interrelationships. They provide a 

common frame of reference to guide and constrain decisions about 

the content of information asset investments in a way that can 

ensure that the right information is available to those who need it, 

when they need it. Employed in concert with IT investment 

management practices designed to ensure that new investments 

are compliant with the architecture, enterprise architectures can 

greatly increase an organization’s likelihood of making successful 

and effective technology investments.7

 Our experience with federal 

 

5

For example, see Office of Management and Budget, Management of Federal Information 

Resources, Circular No. A-130 (Washington, D.C.: November 2000) and U.S. General 

Accounting Office, Executive Guide: Improving Mission Performance through Strategic 

Information Management and Technology: Learning from Leading Organizations, 

GAO/AIMD-94-115 (Washington, D.C.: May 1994). 

6

 U.S. General Accounting Office, Information Technology: A Framework for Assessing and 

Improving Enterprise Architecture Management (Version 1.1), GAO-03-584G (Washington, 

D.C.: April 2003). 

7

 U.S. General Accounting Office, Information Technology Investment Management: A 

Framework for Assessing and Improving Process Maturity (Exposure Draft), GAO/AIMD10.1.23 (Washington, D.C.: May 2000). 
Page 12 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

agencies has shown that investing in information technology 

without the context of an architecture often results in systems that 

are duplicative, not well integrated, and unnecessarily costly to 

maintain and interface.8

 

Numerous Geospatial Technologies Can Be Used to Address 

Different Aspects of Wildland Fire Management 

Geospatial information technologies—sensors, systems, and 

software that collect, manage, manipulate, analyze, model, and 

display information about positions on the earth’s surface—can aid 

in managing wildland fires by providing accurate, detailed, and 

timely information to federal, state, and local decision makers; firefighting personnel; and the public. This information can be used to 

help reduce the risk that a fire will become uncontrollable, to 

respond to critical events while a fire is burning, and to aid in 

recovering from fire disasters. 

Specific examples of geospatial technologies include remote 

sensing systems, the Global Positioning System, and geographic 

information systems. In addition, specialized software can be used 

in conjunction with remote sensing data and geographic 

information systems to manipulate geographic data and allow 

users to analyze, model, and visualize locations and events. Table 1 

describes key geospatial technologies. 

 

8

 See, for example, U.S. General Accounting Office, DOD Business Systems Modernization: 

Improvements to Enterprise Architecture Development and Implementation Efforts Needed, 

GAO-03-458 (Washington, D.C.: February 2003); Information Technology: DLA Should 

Strengthen Business Systems Modernization Architecture and Investment Activities, GAO01-631 (Washington, D.C.: June 2001); and Information Technology: INS Needs to Better 

Manage the Development of Its Enterprise Architecture, AIMD-00-212 (Washington, D.C.: 

August 2000). 
Page 13 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Table 1: Key Geospatial Technologies 

Technology Description 

Remote 

sensing 

systems 

Remote sensing systems observe data that are either emitted or reflected by the earth 

and the atmosphere, collecting these data from a distance—such as from a satellite or 

an aerial platform. Remote sensing systems involve different observing technologies, 

including cameras, scanners, radar and sonar systems, radiometers, lasers, and 

thermal devices—to name a few—and are capable of collecting data from one or more 

bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.a

 Data from different bands provide different 

kinds of information. For example, data observed in the infrared band can identify heat 

sources that are not observable in the visible band of the electromagnetic spectrum. 

When data are collected from multiple bands, a more sophisticated analysis can be 

performed. Key factors that differentiate one sensor from another include the type(s) 

of data collected, the resolutionb

 of the images, the width (or swath) of area covered 

on the ground, and the rate at which the sensor’s platform revisits an area on the 

ground. Appendix IV provides more detail on types of sensors and identifies the 

characteristics of several remote sensing systems. 

After being observed, remotely sensed data need to be processed—a function that can 

include referencing the data to a position on earth, calibrating them, and then 

transforming them into a usable format. The resulting product can be an image or a 

quantitative data product, which can in turn be used as an input to other geospatial 

technologies, including geographic information systems and specialized software. 

Global 

Positioning 

System 

The Global Positioning System is a constellation of orbiting satellites that provides 

navigation data to military and civilian users around the world. These satellites orbit 

the earth every 12 hours, emitting continuous navigation signals. With the proper 

equipment, users can receive these signals and use them to calculate time, location, 

and velocity. Receivers have been developed for use on aircraft, ships, and land-based 

vehicles, as well as via mobile hand-held units. Data from the Global Positioning 

System can be used to reference remotely sensed aerial images or ground-based 

human observations to specific geographic coordinates, a process called georeferencing. 

Geographic 

information 

systems 

A geographic information system (GIS) is a system of computer software, hardware, 

and data used to manipulate, analyze, and graphically display a potentially wide array 

of information associated with geographic locations. These systems can receive input 

from remotely sensed images from satellites and aerial platforms, as well as from other 

sources, including human observation, tabular data, and maps. These systems are 

capable of relating multiple layers of data (such as roads, vegetation, structures, and 

utilities) concerning the same geographical location and representing these multiple 

layers of information as one composite result. 

Specialized 

software 

Specialized software for modeling, decision support, and visualization complements the 

sensing, positioning, and GIS technologies described above by allowing analysts and 

managers to analyze data and explore different scenarios—and thereby make better 

informed decisions. For example, fire behavior specialists use such software to model 

fire behavior. Inputs to these models come from satellite images as well as weather 

data, tabular data, and on-the-ground observations. 

Source: GAO. 

a A spectral band is a set of adjacent wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. Examples include the ultraviolet, visible, nearinfrared, mid-infrared, and thermal infrared bands. 

b Spatial resolution is a measure of the size of the smallest feature that can be distinguished in an image. That is, in a 30-meter 

resolution image, one can discern objects 30 meters and larger. Images with smaller discernable objects are considered to have 

higher resolutions. 
Page 14 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

While individual technologies can be used to obtain information 

and products, the integration of these technologies holds promise 

for providing even more valuable information to decision makers. 

For example, remote sensing systems provide images that are 

useful in their own right. However, when images are geo-referenced 

and combined with other layers of data in a geographic 

information system—and then used with specialized software—a 

more sophisticated analysis can be performed, and more timely 

and sound decisions can be made. Figure 5 provides an overview of 

the relationships among the different technologies and some 

resulting products. 
Page 15 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 5: Overview of the Flow of Data Among Key Geospatial Information Technologies and Resulting 

Products of These Technologies 

Federal Land Management Agencies Are Using Geospatial Technologies to 

Support Wildland Fire Management 

The geospatial information technologies mentioned above—remote 

sensing systems, the Global Positioning System, geographic 

information systems, and specialized softwareare being used to 

some extent in managing wildland fires. These technologies are 

used throughout the wildland fire management life cycle. Key 

examples follow. 
Page 16 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Examples of Geospatial Technology Use: Prefire 

Before a fire starts, local and regional land managers often use 

vegetation and fuels maps derived from remote sensing data in 

conjunction with a geographic information system to understand 

conditions and to identify areas for fuels treatments. Some land 

management offices have also developed software to help them 

assess risk areas and prioritize fuels treatment projects. For 

example, figure 6 depicts a vegetation map, and figure 7 depicts a 

map showing areas with increased risk of fires. Interestingly, an 

area that the map identified as being at high risk of fire later 

burned during the Hayman fire of 2002. 
Page 17 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 6: Vegetation Map, Rocky Mountain Region, Colorado, August 1999 
Page 18 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 7: Fire Hazard Map, Rocky Mountain Region, Colorado, August 1999 

Land management agencies also use geospatial products related to 

the weather to aid in fire planning, detecting, and monitoring 

activities. Weather-based products are derived from ground-based 

lightning detection and weather observing systems, as well as from 

fire-related weather predictions from the National Weather Service. 
Page 19 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 8 depicts a seasonal fire outlook, and figure 9 depicts a fire 

danger map that is based on daily weather predictions. 

Figure 8: National Wildland Fire Outlook 
Page 20 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 9: Fire Danger Map 

Examples of Geospatial Technology Use: During Fire 

During a fire, some fire responders use satellite and aerial imagery, 

in combination with Global Positioning System data, geographic 

information systems, and specialized fire behavior modeling 

software, to obtain information about the fire and to help plan how 

they will respond to it. For example, the Forest Service uses 

satellite data to produce images of active fires. Also, the National 

Interagency Fire Center manages an aerial infrared program that 

flies aircraft equipped with infrared sensors over large fires to 

detect heat and fire areas. These images contribute to the 

development of daily fire perimeter maps. Figure 10 depicts a 

satellite image of active fires. Figure 11 depicts a satellite image of 

a fire perimeter, and figure 12 depicts an aerial infrared image and 

a fire perimeter map based on that image. Some incident teams 

also use fire growth modeling software to predict the growth of 

wildland fires in terms of size, intensity, and spread, considering 

variable terrain, fuels, and weather. Using this information, incident 

managers are able to estimate short- and long-term fire behaviors, 

plan for potential fires, communicate concerns and needs to state 

and local governments and the public, and request and position 

resources. Figure 13 shows the output of a fire behavior model. 
Page 21 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 10: Satellite Images of Fires in the Northwestern United States, July 

21, 2003 

Note: Images from NASA’s Aqua satellite, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer 

(MODIS). 
Page 22 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 11: Landsat Satellite Image Showing Early Fire Perimeters for the 

Rodeo and Chediski Fires, Arizona, June 2002 
Page 23 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 12: An Aerial Infrared Image and Resulting Fire Perimeter Map, 

September 2001 
Page 24 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 13: Output of a Fire Behavior Model 

Geospatial technologies are also used to provide information on 

active fires to the general public. The wildland fire community and 

the U.S. Geological Survey established an Internet Web site, at 

www.geomac.gov, to provide access to geospatial information 

about active fires. This site allows visitors to identify the location 

of wildland fires on a broad scale and then focus in to identify 

information on the location and status of specific fires. Figure 14 

shows images from the Web site. 
Page 25 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 14: Internet-Based Maps of Active Fires 

It is important to note that there are many commercial products 

and services available for use during a fire—ranging from highresolution aerial and satellite imagery, to handheld Global 

Positioning System devices, to enhanced visualization models, to 

on-site geographic information systems, equipment, and personnel. 
Page 26 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Incident commanders responsible for responding to fires often 

choose to purchase commercial products and services to 

supplement interagency resources. 

Examples of Geospatial Technology Use: Postfire 

After a fire occurs, burned-area teams have recently begun to use 

remote sensing data in conjunction with geographic information 

systems to determine the extent of fire damage and to help plan 

and implement emergency stabilization and rehabilitation efforts. 

Typical products include burn severity and burn intensity maps. 

Figure 15 depicts a satellite image and a burn severity map 

showing areas that have a high priority for emergency stabilization 

measures. Geospatial technologies also aid in monitoring 

rehabilitation efforts for years after a fire to ensure that 

restoration plans are on track. 
Page 27 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Figure 15: Burn Severity Map, Hayman Fire, June 2002 

New Uses of Geospatial Information Technologies to Aid in Wildland Fire 

Management Are under Development 

The Forest Service and Interior are researching and developing new 

applications of geospatial information technologies to support 

business needs in wildland fire management. In addition, the Joint 
Page 28 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Fire Science Program, a partnership of the five land management 

agencies and the U.S. Geological Survey, funds numerous research 

projects each year on fire and fuels management. Once again, these 

initiatives vary greatly—ranging from research on remote sensing 

systems to the development of interagency information systems 

with geospatial components, to improvements in existing software 

models. Examples of these efforts include the following: 

• Sensor research. Several new research projects are under way on 

LIDAR and hyperspectral sensors.9 For example, a BLM state office 

is researching the use of high-resolution hyperspectral and LIDAR 

imaging technologies for improving the identification of vegetation; 

planning hazardous fuels projects; and monitoring wildland urban 

interface projects, the effects of wildland fires, and fire 

rehabilitation efforts. Additionally, the Forest Service is exploring 

the use of mobile LIDAR systems for assessing smoke plumes, and 

it is conducting research on using LIDAR data, satellite data, and 

modeling techniques to forecast air quality after a fire. 

• Vegetation data and tools. The five land management agencies and 

the U.S. Geological Survey are working together to develop a 

national geospatial dataset and a set of modeling tools for wildland 

fire planning. This effort, called LANDFIRE, is to provide a 

comprehensive package of spatial data layers, models, and tools 

needed by land and fire managers. The system is expected to help 

prioritize, plan, complete, and monitor fuel treatment and 

restoration projects on national, regional, and local scales. A 

prototype of the system covers central Utah and Northwestern 

Montana and is expected to be completed by April 2005. 

• Interagency information systems. The five land management 

agencies are developing information systems for use by Interior 

and Forest Service offices to track efforts under the National Fire 

Plan. The National Fire Plan Operations and Reporting System is an 

interagency system designed to assist field personnel in managing 

and reporting accomplishments for work conducted under the 

National Fire Plan. It is a Web-based data collection tool with GIS 

support that locates projects and treatments. It consists of three 

modules—hazardous fuels reduction, restoration and 

rehabilitation, and community assistance. While the agencies are 

currently using the system, it will not be fully operational until 

2004. Another information system, the Fire Program Analysis 

 

9

 LIDAR sensors measure the reflection of emitted light; hyperspectral sensors observe 

data in multiple contiguous channels of the electromagnetic spectrum. A more detailed 

discussion of these and other types of sensors is included in appendix IV. 
Page 29 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

system, is an interagency planning tool for analysis and budgeting 

to be used by the five federal wildland fire management agencies. 

The first module—preparedness—is scheduled for implementation 

in September 2004 and will evaluate the cost-effectiveness of 

alternative initial attack operations in meeting multiple fire 

management objectives. Additional system modules are expected 

to provide geospatial capabilities and to address extended attack, 

large fires and national fire resources, hazardous fuels reduction, 

wildland fire use, and fire prevention. 

• Improvements in existing systems. There are multiple efforts 

planned or under way to improve existing systems or to add 

geospatial components to systems that are currently under 

development. For example, researchers at a federal fire sciences 

laboratory are exploring possible improvements to the Wildland 

Fire Assessment System, an Internet-based system that provides 

information on a broad area of national fire potential and weather 

maps for fire managers and the general public. Specifically, 

researchers are working to develop products that depict moisture 

levels in live fuels, which will aid in assessing the potential for 

wildland fires. 

Extent to Which Geospatial Technologies Are Used to Support Wildland Fire 

Management Is Not Fully Known 

While many land management entities are using geospatial 

technologies in support of their wildland fire-related activities, the 

extent to which geospatial technologies and tools are being used in 

support of wildland fire management is not fully known. In an 

effort to get a more accurate picture of how extensively geospatial 

information technologies are being used, the Geospatial Task 

Group, a subgroup of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s 

(NWCG) IRM working team, is conducting a survey of wildland fire 

personnel to determine what technologies are being used and how 

they are being used. Group members stated that this information 

would help them to develop interagency standards for equipment 

and training and would allow land managers to learn from others’ 

experiences in using some of the geospatial information 

technologies. For example, some incident teams use fire modeling 

software during active fires, while some land management offices 

are using the software in planning prescribed fires. The group 

initiated its survey in June 2003 and expects to complete its 

assessment by September 2003. 
Page 30 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

The Wildland Fire Community Faces Numerous Challenges in 

Using Geospatial Information Technologies Effectively; More 

Must Be Done to Address These Challenges 

There are numerous challenges in using geospatial information 

technologies effectively in the wildland fire community. Key 

challenges involve data, systems, infrastructure, staffing, and the 

effective use of new products and technologies—all complicated by 

the fact that wildland fire management extends beyond a single 

agency’s responsibility. NWCG has several initiatives under way to 

address specific challenges to using geospatial information 

technologies. However, progress on these initiatives has been slow, 

and the initiatives do not address all of the challenges. 

A root cause of many of these challenges is the lack of an overall 

strategy guiding interagency management of information resources 

and technologies. Currently, different IRM-related teams within 

NWCG are planning initiatives to improve the interagency 

management of information resources and technology. Focusing 

specifically on geospatial technologies, the NWCG’s IRM working 

team’s geospatial task group has proposed developing an 

interagency strategic plan for using geospatial technologies to 

support wildland fire management. Additionally, the IRM working 

team has developed a draft IRM strategy to guide information 

technology development and use by the interagency fire 

community. At a broader level, NWCG’s IRM program management 

office plans to develop an enterprise architecture to guide and 

integrate business operations for wildland fire management. 

However, these efforts lack the senior-level endorsement and the 

detailed plans and milestones necessary for success. Until effective 

interagency management of information technologies becomes a 

priority, the wildland fire community will likely continue to face 

challenges in effectively using geospatial technologies. 

Many Challenges Affect the Usefulness of Geospatial Information Technologies 

As the use of geospatial information technologies has become 

more common in wildland fire management, the challenges to 

effectively using and sharing geospatial information have become 

more apparent. Key challenges include the following: 

• Data issues. Users of geospatial information have noted problems 

in acquiring compatible and comprehensive geospatial data. For 
Page 31 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

example, GIS specialists involved in fighting fires reported that 

they did not have ready access to the geospatial data they needed. 

They noted that some local jurisdictions have geospatial data, but 

others do not. Further, they reported that the data from 

neighboring jurisdictions are often incompatible. GIS specialists 

reported that the first days at a wildland fire are spent trying to 

gather the geospatial information needed to accurately map the 

fire. While concerns with data availability and compatibility are 

often noted during fire incidents, these issues are also evident 

before and after fire incidents. For example, we recently reported 

that the five land management agencies did not know how effective 

their postfire emergency stabilization and rehabilitation treatments 

were because, among other reasons, local land units do not 

routinely collect comparable information.

10 As a result of 

unavailable or incompatible data, decision makers often lack the 

timely, integrated information they need to make sound decisions 

in managing different aspects of wildland fire. 

On a related note, the development and implementation of data 

standards is a well-recognized solution for addressing some of the 

problems mentioned above, but there are currently no nationally 

recognized geospatial data standards for use on fires. GIS 

specialists frequently cited a need for common, interagency 

geospatial data standards for use with fires. They noted that the 

land management agencies and states do not record information 

about fires—such as fire location, fire perimeter, or the date of 

different fire perimeters—in the same way. 

System issues. In 1996, NWCG reported that there was a 

duplication of information systems and computer applications 

supporting wildland fire management, noting that agencies were 

using 15 different weather-related software applications, 9 logistics 

applications, and 7 dispatch applications.11 Since that time, the 

number of applications has grown—as has the potential for 

duplication of effort. Duplicative systems not only waste limited 

funds, but they also make interoperability between systems more 

difficult. 

This issue is complicated by the fact that there is no single, 

comprehensive inventory of information systems and applications 

that could be of use to others in the interagency wildland fire 

 

10 U.S. General Accounting Office, Wildland Fires: Better Information Needed on 

Effectiveness of Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Treatments, GAO-03-430 

(Washington, D.C.: Apr. 4, 2003). 

11 National Wildfire Coordinating Group, Information Resource Management Strategy 

Project: Wildland Fire Business Model (National Interagency Fire Center: August 1996). 
Page 32 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

community. A single comprehensive inventory would allow the 

wildland fire community to identify and learn about available 

applications and tools, and to avoid duplicating efforts to develop 

new applications. We identified five different inventories of 

software applications—including information systems, models, and 

tools—that are currently being used in support of wildland fire 

management. While these listings are not limited to geospatial 

applications, many of the applications have geospatial components. 

The most comprehensive listing is an inventory managed by NWCG. 

This inventory identifies 199 applications used in support of 

wildland fire, but even this inventory is not complete. That is, it did 

not include 45 applications that were included in the other 

inventories. Additionally, it did not include 24 applications that we 

had identified. Appendix V provides information on applications 

with geospatial components. 

Infrastructure issues. Many GIS specialists noted that there are 

problems in getting equipment, networking capabilities, and 

Internet access to the areas that need them during a fire. For 

example, at a recent fire in a remote location, these specialists 

reported that they were unable to produce needed information and 

maps because they had problems with networking capabilities. 

Again, this issue is critical during a fire, when incident teams try to 

set up a command center in a remote location. However, it is also 

an issue when federal regional managers try to obtain consistent 

information from the different land management agencies’ field 

offices before or after fires. The majority of local field offices have 

equipment to support geospatial information and analysis, but 

some do not. 

Staffing issues. GIS specialists noted that the training and 

qualifications of the GIS specialists who support fire incidents is 

not consistent. Specifically, officials noted that skills and 

qualifications vary widely among those who work with geographic 

information systems. For example, some GIS specialists are capable 

of interpreting infrared images as well as developing maps, but 

others are not. Some have experience working with GIS applications 

but are not specifically trained to develop GIS maps for fires. 

Use of new products. While many commercial vendors are 

developing geospatial products and services that could be of use to 

the wildland fire community—including advanced satellite and 

aerial imaging; GIS software and equipment; and advanced 

mapping products, including analyses, visualization, and 

modeling—many have expressed concern that the wildland fire 

community is not aware of these advancements or has little 
Page 33 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

funding for these products. Land managers acknowledged the 

value of many of these products, but noted that acquiring these 

products needs to be driven by business needs. Agency officials 

also expressed concern that the cost of these products and services 

can be prohibitive and that licensing restrictions could keep them 

from sharing the commercial data and products with others in the 

wildland fire community. 

National Wildfire Coordinating Group Has Initiated Efforts to Address Some 

Geospatial Challenges, but Progress Has Been Slow and Not All Challenges Are 

Being Addressed 

Different NWCG teams (including the IRM working team, the IRM 

program management office, the IRM working team’s geospatial 

task group, and the IRM working team’s data administration 

working group) are undertaking efforts to address specific 

challenges to effectively using information technologies. 

Specifically: 

• Focusing on geospatial data issues, NWCG teams are working to 

share geospatial data and to define geospatial data standards. To 

date, an NWCG team has established an Internet site where 

geospatial data can be provided and obtained. NWCG teams have 

also begun developing data standards for daily and final fire 

perimeters with a goal of implementing these standards across the 

land management agencies. 

• Recognizing the large number of systems supporting fire 

management, an NWCG team is managing the development of five 

new interagency systems to replace several similar systems that are 

currently being used by different agencies. For example, the team 

has developed a resource ordering and status system to replace 

four existing systems and is developing an integrated system for 

tracking the qualifications of individuals assigned to fire incidents 

(such as incident commanders and firefighters), which should 

replace separate tracking systems that are currently used by the 

five land management agencies. NWCG is also working to improve 

the inventory of information systems and applications that are 

used to support wildland fire management. This team is seeking 

validation of the information already in the inventory and adding 

new items to the inventory as they become known. 

• Focusing on the development of GIS specialists’ skills, an ad hoc 

group not associated with NWCG developed a training course for 

GIS technical specialists who work on fires, to provide them a 
Page 34 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

minimum set of qualifications, with the intent of obtaining a 

consistent level of GIS skills among the specialists. An NWCG team 

is evaluating this training for use throughout the wildland fire 

community. Also, this NWCG team has proposed a minimum set of 

qualifications for GIS specialists who work on fires. 

However, progress on these geospatial initiatives has been slow. 

Although these initiatives have been under development for over 

14 months, senior NWCG IRM officials have not yet endorsed 

proposals for a data standard on fire perimeters, the GIS 

specialists’ qualifications for incident support, or the GIS 

specialists’ training. NWCG officials were unable to estimate when 

they would evaluate or implement these proposals; they explained 

that they have multiple competing priorities. 

Further, these initiatives do not address all of the challenges to 

effectively using geospatial information technologies. The 

initiatives do not address issues associated with infrastructure and 

the use of new technologies, and they do not comprehensively 

address all of the issues with data, systems, and staffing. For 

example, other geospatial data standards are needed to achieve 

consistency in the geospatial data used to support wildland fire 

management. 

Effective Interagency IT Management Could Help Address Challenges 

Effective interagency IT management could help address the 

challenges faced by the wildland fire community in using 

geospatial information and technologies. Such an approach could 

address the implementation and enforcement of national 

geospatial data standards for managing wildland fires, an 

interagency strategic approach to systems and infrastructure 

development, a plan for ensuring consistent equipment and 

training throughout the wildland fire community, and a thorough 

evaluation of user needs and opportunities for meeting those 

needs through new products and technologies. 

Acknowledging many of the geospatial and information 

management challenges, in September 2002 the National Academy 

of Public Administration reported that a national information 

technology/information management framework is needed to 

guide future development and deployment of systems and 

information sources to support more cost-effective fire 
Page 35 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

suppression.12 Such a framework would provide an architecture for 

systems, applications, data, and networks, based on user-identified 

needs. The academy recommended that the agencies involved work 

together under the guidance of the Wildland Fire Leadership 

Council to describe what the desired system and data sources 

should accomplish in fire management and how individual 

components and data sources can become functioning parts of the 

overall system. The academy also recommended that the 

framework provide uniform data policies and standards to ensure 

the interoperability needed among federal, state, and local systems 

to maximize the utility and maintenance of available geographic 

information. 

National Wildfire Coordinating Group Plans to Improve Interagency IT 

Management, but Efforts Lack Senior-Level Endorsement and Detailed Plans 

and Milestones 

Three different teams within NWCG are planning initiatives to 

improve the interagency management of geospatial information 

and information resources and technology. However, these 

initiatives lack the senior-level endorsement and detailed plans and 

milestones necessary for success. 

Focusing specifically on geospatial technologies, the Geospatial 

Task Group (a subgroup of NWCG’s IRM working team) has 

proposed developing an interagency strategic plan for using 

geospatial technologies to support wildland fire management. 

Officials proposed that this geospatial strategic plan would 

evaluate the use of technologies in support of the wildland fire 

mission, assess the need for these technologies, explore 

opportunities to improve these technologies, and contribute to 

developing an interagency geospatial infrastructure. However, 

NWCG has not approved funding for this initiative, and as a result, 

there is as yet no schedule for developing this geospatial strategic 

plan. 

Focusing on IRM management, NWCG’s IRM working team 

developed a draft IRM strategy to help guide information 

technology development and use by the interagency fire 

community. However, this plan has been in draft form since March 

2002, and officials could not estimate when it would be finalized. 

Further, the draft plan includes high-level objectives, but does not 

 

12 Frank Fairbanks, Elizabeth Hill, Patrick Kelly, Lyle Laverty, Keith F. Mulrooney, Charlie 

Philpot, and Charles Wise, Wildfire Suppression: Strategies for Containing Costs

(Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Public Administration, September 2002). 
Page 36 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

include detailed action items or schedules for accomplishing these 

objectives. For example, the draft IRM strategy lists objectives such 

as leveraging existing technologies, incorporating emerging 

technologies, and developing and obtaining a workforce that is 

fully trained and skilled in the use of IRM applications. However, 

the plan does not identify any activities or schedules for 

accomplishing these objectives. 

At a broader level, NWCG’s IRM program management office plans 

to develop an interagency enterprise architecture to guide and 

integrate business operations for wildland fire management. 

According to federal guidance on developing enterprise 

architectures, one of the most important initial steps is to obtain 

and demonstrate senior-level support for the architecture effort.13

Another critical element is to demonstrate a clear plan, or 

roadmap, for developing the architecture. Such a plan would 

include critical steps, deliverables, and estimated time frames for 

the deliverables. Critical activities in the plan would include a 

description of the current IT environment (hardware, software, 

data, communications); an assessment of user needs and 

technological opportunities for meeting those needs; a target 

environment; and a transition plan to get to the target 

environment. Finally, for an enterprise architecture to be effective, 

it needs to be tied to investment processes and controls. That way, 

decision makers can ensure that new investments in technology are 

consistent with the target environment. 

NWCG’s IRM program management office is beginning to work on 

an interagency enterprise architecture. To date, the office has 

established a goal of developing an enterprise architecture for the 

interagency wildland fire community and has designated an IRM 

program manager, data architect, and applications architect to help 

build it. Further, the data and applications architects expect to be 

certified in the development of federal enterprise architectures by 

October 2003. 

However, the planned interagency enterprise architecture lacks 

senior-level support, detailed plans and milestones, and a link to 

investment control processes. The Wildland Fire Leadership 

Council was established in April 2002 to provide senior-level 

leadership in the wildland fire community. However, the 

Leadership Council has not formally endorsed NWCG’s interagency 

enterprise architecture effort. Without this senior-level support, the 

 

13 Chief Information Officer Council, A Practical Guide to Federal Enterprise Architecture, 

Version 1.0 (February 2001). 
Page 37 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

interagency wildland fire community runs the risk that its 

components will continue to invest in duplicative “stovepiped” 

systems and will perpetuate the existing situation of limited 

interoperability and unnecessarily costly operations. 

Additionally, although the IRM program management office has 

established the goal of developing an enterprise architecture, it has 

not yet defined exactly what it will deliver and by when. NWCG 

officials could not provide estimates for when they would develop 

a thorough understanding of the current “as is” interagency 

environment, identify user needs and technological opportunities 

for meeting those needs, identify a target architecture, or complete 

a plan for transitioning to that target architecture. NWCG officials 

explained that “to successfully implement anything across two 

departments, five federal agencies, and 50 states is difficult and 

takes years of planning and preparation.” 

Further, once it is developed, it is not clear how this enterprise 

architecture would be linked to the interagency geospatial strategic 

plan, the interagency IRM strategy, or the different agencies’ 

investment control processes. 

Given the complexity of interagency wildland fire operations, it is 

clear that effectively managing IT (including geospatial IT) in 

support of the wildland fire mission is a challenging task. However, 

it is also clear that without senior-level endorsement and clear 

plans for achieving results, efforts to address geospatial IT 

challenges and to improve IT management may never be 

successful. Until effective management of information resources 

and technology in support of the wildland fire mission becomes a 

management priority, the wildland fire community will likely 

continue to face significant challenges in effectively using 

geospatial technologies. 

New National Efforts to Improve the Use of Geospatial 

Information Are Promising, but Challenges to Effective Data 

Sharing Remain 

Effectively using geospatial information is of interest beyond the 

wildland fire management community. Detailed, accurate, and 

accessible geospatial information is critical in addressing homeland 

security and national preparedness, supporting our transportation 

infrastructure, managing natural resources, and performing the 
Page 38 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

national census—among other activities—and the federal 

government has long recognized problems in duplicative 

collections of geospatial data. 

We recently reported that the federal government has tried for 

years to reduce duplicative geospatial data collection by 

coordinating geospatial activities both within and outside the 

federal government.14 In 1953, the Bureau of the Budget first issued 

its Circular A-16, encouraging expeditious surveying and mapping 

activities across all levels of government and avoidance of 

duplicative efforts. In 1990, the Office of Management and Budget 

revised this circular to establish a Federal Geographic Data 

Committee (FGDC), chaired by the Department of the Interior, to 

promote coordinated use, sharing, and dissemination of geospatial 

data nationwide. In 1994, an executive order called for coordinating 

geographic data acquisition and access through a National Spatial 

Data Infrastructure.15 The order defined this infrastructure as the 

technology, policies, standards, and human resources necessary to 

acquire, process, store, distribute, and improve the utilization of 

geospatial data. In 2002, the Office of Management and Budget 

issued revised guidance for agencies that create, use, or store 

geospatial data and established a coordinated approach to the 

National Spatial Data Infrastructure.16 Additionally, the 

E-Government Act of 2002 called for common protocols for GIS in 

order to reduce redundant data collection and information, and to 

promote collaboration and use of standards for government 

geographic information.17 Most recently, the Office of Management 

and Budget issued guidance on implementing the act.18 

Various efforts are now under way to implement this guidance and 

legislation. Under the framework of the National Spatial Data 

Infrastructure, the FGDC coordinates efforts to develop national 

standards for geospatial data, develop a national framework for 

sharing geospatial data collections, and establish a portal on the 

Internet—called the Geospatial One-Stop initiative—for accessing 

geospatial information. 

 

14 U.S. General Accounting Office, Geographic Information Systems: Challenges to Effective 

Data Sharing, GAO-03-874T (Washington, D.C.: June 10, 2003). 15 Executive Order 12906, Coordination of Geographic Data Acquisition and Access: The 

National Spatial Data Infrastructure (Apr. 13, 1994). 16 Office of Management and Budget, Coordination of Geographic Information and Related 

Spatial Data Activities, Circular A-16 Revised (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 19, 2002). The 

Circular applies to any agency that collects, produces, acquires, maintains, distributes, 

uses, or preserves paper maps or digital geospatial data to fulfill its mission. 

17 Sec. 216, P.L. 107-347, December 17, 2002. 

18 Office of Management and Budget Memorandum, "Implementation Guidance for the 

E-Government Act of 2002," M-03-18 (Aug. 1, 2003). 
Page 39 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

The status of these efforts follows. 

• Geospatial Data Standards. FGDC is developing standards for data 

documentation, collection, and exchange so that data can be shared 

across state and local boundaries on many different hardware 

platforms and with many different software programs. To date, 

FGDC has established 20 different standards, including standards 

for classifying vegetation and for documenting information about 

the collected data, called metadata. 

• National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse. The clearinghouse is a 

decentralized system of Internet servers that contain field-level 

descriptions or metadata of available digital geospatial data. The 

clearinghouse allows individual agencies, consortia, and 

geographically defined communities to coordinate and promote the 

use of their available geospatial data. Currently, the FGDC 

Clearinghouse server connects to over 250 nodes around the world. 

• Geospatial One-Stop. One of 25 high-profile Office of Management 

and Budget-sponsored e-government initiatives, this project builds 

upon the data clearinghouse to develop an Internet portal for onestop access to geospatial data. This effort is expected to develop 

national geospatial data standards, increase the inventory of data 

holdings, and encourage greater coordination among federal, state, 

and local agencies about existing and planned geospatial projects. 

The Department of the Interior expects to complete this initiative 

in early 2004. 

While these initiatives hold promise, much remains to be done to 

achieve effective sharing of geospatial data. We recently reported 

that progress has been made on these initiatives, but that achieving 

the goals of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure remains a 

formidable challenge.19 Despite a series of mandates and directives 

over many years requiring the use of standards and cooperation 

among federal agencies and other entities, not all governmental 

entities are fully cooperating on a nationwide basis. As a result, 

significant geographic data standardization and data sharing have 

not been realized. We also noted that a much more substantial 

effort will be required to attain the vision of seamless integration 

of GIS data nationwide. Specifically, existing draft standards may 

need further revision, and more extensive coordination efforts may 

be required to ensure broad adoption of the standards at all levels 

of government. Further, attaining this goal is likely to require a 

continuing effort over an extended period of time. Clearly, 

 

19 GAO-03-874T. 
Page 40 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

compliance with the mandate of the E-Government Act will advance 

the goal of obtaining standardized geographic data. 

Although these national efforts are not at the level of detail that 

the wildland fire community needs for fire-related geospatial data 

standards, it will be important that the efforts are coordinated. As 

the interagency wildland fire community moves forward with its 

plans to develop an overall strategy for geospatial information 

technology and data standards, it will be important to incorporate 

national data standards, to participate in national initiatives such 

as the Geospatial One-Stop, and to comply with the purpose and 

requirements of the E-Government Act. 

Conclusions 

The federal wildland fire management community is using a variety 

of different geospatial technologies for such activities as 

identifying dangerous fuels, assessing fire risks, detecting and 

fighting fires, and restoring fire-damaged lands. These technologies 

run the gamut from satellite and aerial imaging, to the Global 

Positioning System, to geographic information systems, to 

specialized fire models. 

Local land managers and incident teams often acquire, collect, and 

develop geospatial information and technologies to meet their 

specific needs, resulting in a hodgepodge of incompatible and 

duplicative data and tools. This problem is echoed throughout the 

fire community: Those who work with different aspects of fire 

management commonly cite concerns with unavailable or 

incompatible geospatial data, duplicative systems, lack of 

equipment and infrastructure to access geospatial information, 

inconsistency in the training of GIS specialists, and ineffective use 

of new products and technologies. These challenges illustrate the 

need for a new, integrated, strategic approach to managing 

information systems and data in the wildland fire community. 

Different teams within the National Wildfire Coordinating Group 

have proposed developing an interagency geospatial strategy to 

help define and plan how to address geospatial challenges, drafted 

an interagency IRM strategy to identify high-level goals, and 

proposed developing an interagency enterprise architecture to 

more effectively manage information resources and technology. 

However, the plan to develop a geospatial strategy has not been 

approved, and the draft IRM strategy lacks detailed activities and 

schedules for accomplishing key objectives. Further, the NWCG 
Page 41 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

team responsible for developing the architecture has not yet begun 

the effort, and the initiative lacks the senior management 

endorsement, the detailed plans and schedules, and the link to an 

investment control process that are critical to any architecture’s 

success. 

Looking beyond the wildland fire community, effective use of 

geospatial information is a national priority. The federal 

government has been working for years to use geospatial data 

more effectively and efficiently. New initiatives to develop 

nationwide standards, a geospatial data clearinghouse, and an 

Internet portal for accessing geospatial data holdings offer much 

promise. However, significant challenges remain. It will be 

important, as NWCG moves forward with its efforts to develop an 

interagency geospatial strategy, an interagency IRM strategy, and 

an interagency enterprise architecture, that these efforts comply 

with the requirements of the E-Government Act and incorporate 

national standards for geospatial data. 

Recommendations 

In order to better manage the use of geospatial information in 

support of wildland fire management, we recommend that the 

Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior direct the Wildland Fire 

Leadership Council to endorse and oversee the National Wildfire 

Coordinating Group’s efforts to develop an interagency geospatial 

strategy for effectively using geospatial information technologies in 

all phases of wildland fire management. We also recommend that 

this geospatial strategy 

• address challenges to effectively using geospatial technologies, 

including issues associated with data, systems, infrastructure, 

staffing, and the use of new products; 

• establish deliverables and milestones for completing key initiatives; 

and 

• be incorporated in interagency efforts to improve IT management, 

including the interagency IRM strategy and the interagency 

enterprise architecture effort. 

In order to ensure effective interagency IT management, we 

recommend that the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior 

immediately endorse development of an interagency IRM strategy 
Page 42 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

and an enterprise architecture for wildland fire management. 

Further, we recommend that the Secretaries ensure senior-level 

oversight by directing the Wildland Fire Leadership Council to 

oversee the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s efforts to 

• establish detailed plans and schedules for implementing the 

interagency IRM strategy for wildland fire management; 

• establish a detailed plan for developing the interagency enterprise 

architecture for wildland fire management, and ensure that it 

includes clear interim steps and implementation milestones; 

• ensure that the interagency geospatial strategic plan and the 

interagency IRM strategy are integrated with the enterprise 

architecture for wildland fire management; 

• establish a link between the architecture and the investment 

control processes at the land management agencies; and 

• ensure that the architecture incorporates E-Government Act 

requirements and national standards for geospatial data. 

Agency Comments 

We provided a draft of this report to the Secretaries of Agriculture 

and the Interior for review and comment. The departments 

provided a consolidated, written response to our draft report, 

signed by the Under Secretary, Natural Resources and the 

Environment, Department of Agriculture, and the Assistant 

Secretary, Policy, Management and Budget, Department of the 

Interior. The departments’ response is included in appendix VI of 

this report. The departments agreed with the report’s conclusions 

and recommendations, and noted that developing an interagency 

IRM strategy and interagency enterprise architecture is an 

ambitious undertaking. They stated that it makes sense to 

incorporate our recommendations into ongoing agency and 

departmental e-government enterprise architecture strategies, and 

that doing so will enable them to modernize various lines of 

business in manageable components. The departments also stated 

that as a result of these initiatives, the agencies will gain 

incremental integration of information and shared use of 

information technology, but noted that these improvements will be 

both time and resource intensive. 
Page 43 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

The departments commented that our findings will be discussed by 

the Wildland Fire Leadership Council at their October 2003 meeting 

and that, based on that discussion and direction provided by the 

Council, staff from the two departments will be tasked with 

developing an action plan to address our findings and the broader 

issue of geospatial needs for wildland fire management. The 

departments also stated that the recommendations we provided 

will help the departments move forward to establish a better 

coordinated, interagency architecture for geospatial wildland fire 

management information requirements. The departments also 

provided technical corrections, which we have incorporated as 

appropriate. 

 We are sending notification of this report to the Chairman and 

Ranking Minority Members of the Subcommittee on Public Lands 

and Forests, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources; 

the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, House Committee 

on Resources; and other interested congressional committees. We 

will also send notification of this report to the Secretary of 

Agriculture; the Secretary of the Interior; the Chief of the Forest 

Service; the Directors of the Bureau of Land Management, the 

National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service; the Deputy 

Commissioner, Bureau of Indian Affairs; the Director, Office of 

Management and Budget; and other interested parties. In addition, 

this report will be available at no charge on GAO’s Web site at 

www.gao.gov. 

If you have any questions on matters discussed in this report, 

please contact me at (202) 512-9286 or Colleen Phillips, Assistant 

Director, at (202) 512-6326. We can also be reached by E-mail at 

pownerd@gao.gov and phillipsc@gao.gov, respectively. Other 

contacts and key contributors to this report are listed in 

appendix VII. 

David A. Powner 

Director (Acting), Information Technology 

 Management Issues 
Page 44 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 

Our objectives were to (1) identify key geospatial information 

technologies for addressing different aspects of wildland fire 

management; (2) summarize key challenges to the effective use of 

geospatial technologies in wildland fire management; and 

(3) identify national opportunities to improve the effective use of 

geospatial technologies. To accomplish these objectives, we 

focused our review on five key federal agencies that are 

responsible for wildland fire management on public lands: the 

Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and the Department of 

the Interior’s National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, 

Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. To address 

the final objective, we also reviewed national efforts to improve the 

use of geospatial information by the Office of Management and 

Budget and the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). 

To identify key geospatial information technologies for addressing 

different aspects of wildland fire management, we assessed 

policies, plans, and reports on wildland fire management and 

technical documents on geospatial technologies. We assessed 

information on Forest Service and Interior efforts to develop and 

use geospatial technologies. We also interviewed officials with the 

Forest Service and the Interior, interagency organizations, 

commercial vendors, and selected states to determine the 

characteristics and uses of different geospatial technologies in 

supporting different phases of wildland fire management. In 

addition, we met with officials of other federal agencies, including 

the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey, the 

Department of Defense’s National Imagery and Mapping Agency, 

the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the 

Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security’s 

Federal Emergency Management Agency, to identify their efforts to 

develop geospatial information products in support of wildland 

fire management. 

To compile a list of geospatial applications used in support of 

wildland fire management, we identified five inventories of 

software models, applications, and tools used to support wildland 

fire activities. We combined the five inventories to compile a more 

complete list of applications, and we added geospatial applications 
Page 45 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

that were not on any of the inventories. We learned about these 

other applications through discussions with agency officials and by 

searching Forest Service and Interior Web sites. Additionally, Forest 

Service and Interior officials provided input on which applications 

have geospatial components and provided supporting information 

where it was available. We did not validate the accuracy of the 

information in the five separate inventories. 

To summarize key challenges to the effective use and sharing of 

geospatial technologies, we reviewed key reports and studies on 

these challenges. These include the following: 

Burchfield, James A., Theron A. Miller, Lloyd Queen, Joe Frost, 

Dorothy Albright, and David DelSordo. Investigation of Geospatial 

Support of Incident Management. National Center for Landscape 

Fire Analysis at the University of Montana. November 25, 2002. 

Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, Disaster Management 

Support Group. The Use of Earth Observing Satellites for Hazard 

Support: Assessments & Scenarios. National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration, n.d. 

Department of Agriculture (Forest Service) and Department of 

Interior. Developing an Interagency, Landscape-scale Fire Planning 

Analysis and Budget Tool. n.d. [December 2001]. 

Fairbanks, Frank, Elizabeth Hill, Patrick Kelly, Lyle Laverty, Keith F. 

Mulrooney, Charlie Philpot, and Charles Wise. Wildfire Suppression: 

Strategies for Containing Costs. Washington, D.C.: National 

Academy of Public Administration, September 2002. 

Fairbanks, Frank, Henry Gardner, Elizabeth Hill, Keith Mulrooney, 

Charles Philpot, Karl Weick, and Charles Wise. Managing Wildland 

Fire: Enhancing Capacity to Implement the Federal Interagency 

Policy. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Public 

Administration, December 2001. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Wildland Fire 

Management: Some Information Needs and Opportunities. Working 

paper, National Hazards Information Strategy, July 2002. 

National Wildfire Coordinating Group. Information Resource 

Management Strategy Project: Wildland Fire Business Model. 

National Interagency Fire Center. August 1996. 
Page 46 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

National Wildfire Coordinating Group, Information Resource 

Management Working Team, Geospatial Task Group. Geospatial 

Technology for Incident Support: A White Paper. April 12, 2002. 

We also interviewed federal officials from interagency wildland fire 

groups, including the national fire directors, the National Wildfire 

Coordinating Group’s (NWCG) Information Resource Management 

(IRM) working team, NWCG’s IRM program management office, the 

IRM working team’s geospatial task group, and the Wildland Fire 

Leadership Council to discuss challenges and ongoing efforts to 

address these challenges. In addition, we reviewed postfire reports 

on the Hayman, Biscuit, and Cerro Grande fires to identify how 

geospatial technologies were used on these fires and to evaluate 

any challenges the incident teams may have encountered in using 

these technologies. We attended federal and commercial 

conferences on geospatial information technologies, interviewed 

representatives from selected states and commercial vendors, and 

observed group discussions on challenges in effectively using these 

technologies and plans for addressing them. 

To identify national opportunities to improve the effective use of 

geospatial technologies to address wildland fire management, we 

identified key national efforts to set geospatial data standards, to 

reduce duplication of effort, and to increase collaboration among 

the federal government, states, and private entities. Specifically, we 

evaluated the history of legislation and guidance from the Office of 

Management and Budget on geospatial information, and identified 

the status and plans of efforts under the National Spatial Data 

Infrastructure, including FGDC’s efforts to develop geospatial data 

standards, a data clearinghouse, and an Internet portal (called 

Geospatial One-Stop). We discussed the status of these initiatives 

with the Office of Management and Budget and committee officials. 

We also reviewed the land management agencies’ progress in 

implementing and enforcing key elements of these national efforts 

by assessing the FGDC progress reports and by determining the 

status of the agencies’ efforts to adopt geospatial data policies. 

We conducted our review at the federal agencies’ headquarters in 

Washington, D.C.; the Forest Service’s Remote Sensing Applications 

Center and Geospatial Service and Technology Center in Salt Lake 

City, Utah; the U.S. Geological Survey’s Rocky Mountain Mapping 

Center in Denver, Colorado; the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth 

Resources Observation Systems Data Center in Sioux Falls, South 

Dakota; the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho; and 

the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences 

Laboratory in Missoula, Montana. We conducted our work between 
Page 47 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

October 2002 and September 2003 in accordance with generally 

accepted government auditing standards. 
Page 48 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Appendix II: Major Wildland Fire Policies, Plans, Reports, and 

Initiatives 

The following table provides a chronology of the policies, plans, 

reports, and initiatives that form the national approach to wildland 

fire management over the past decade. 

Document or initiative What it does 

Relationship to 

other initiatives 

Federal Wildland Fire 

Management Policy and 

Program Review, 

December 1995 

This policy responded to the tragic fires of 1994. Among other 

things, the report 

• reaffirms the protection of life as the first priority, 

• recognizes wildland fire as a critical natural process, 

• requires that fire management plans be developed for all 

burnable acres, 

• requires that fire management decisions be consistent with 

approved land and resource management plans, 

• requires that agency administrators conside r a full range of 

fire management actions, and 

• clarifies the role of federal agencies in the wildland-urban 

interface. 

Provides the 

overarching fire 

policy framework for 

the Department of 

Agriculture’s Forest 

Service (FS) and the 

Department of the 

Interior’s National 

Park Service (NPS), 

Fish and Wildlife 

Service (FWS), 

Bureau of Indian 

Affairs (BIA), and 

Bureau of Land 

Management (BLM). 

A Report to the President: 

Managing the Impact of 

Wildfires on Communities 

and the Environment, 

September 2000 

Web site: 

www.fireplan.gov/content

/reports/

This report was developed in response to a Presidential request. 

It provides recommendations to the Departments of Agriculture 

and the Interior on how best to respond to the severe fire 

season of 2000. 

Among other key recommendations, the report recommends 

that the departments 

• provide additional firefighting resources; 

• restore damaged landscapes and communities; 

• increase investment to reduce fire risk (emphasis on multijurisdictional efforts that give better landscape protection); 

• work directly with local communities that are at risk, to 

improve community fire-fighting capacity and coordination, 

implement restoration and fuel reduction projects, and 

expand education and risk mitigation efforts in the wildland 

urban interface; and 

• establish accountability. 

Provides the basis 

and conceptual 

framework for the 

National Fire Plan 

and the 10-Year 

Comprehensive 

Strategy. 
Page 49 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Document or initiative What it does 

Relationship to 

other initiatives 

The National Fire Plan 

Initiative, October 2000 

This initiative is a long-term, multifaceted program designed to 

manage the impacts of wildland fire on communities and 

ecosystems and to reduce wildfire risk. It encompasses the 

Departments of Agriculture (FS) and the Interior (NPS, FWS, 

BIA, BLM). The program focuses on 

• improving fire preparedness, 

• restoring and rehabilitating burned areas, 

• reducing hazardous fuels, 

• assisting communities, and 

• accountability. 

Implements the 

recommendations in 

the Report to the 

President through 

the Departments of 

Agriculture and the 

Interior, with 

increased funding 

provided by 

Congress. 

Protecting People and 

Sustaining Resources in 

Fire-Adapted Ecosystems: 

A Cohesive Strategy, 

October 2000 

This strategy is the Forest Service’s response to GAO report

RCED-99-65,a which found that fuel buildup was a major 

problem in the interior west and recommended that the Forest 

Service develop a cohesive strategy for reducing fuel buildup. 

The strategy establishes a framework to restore and maintain 

the health of fire-adapted ecosystems on National Forest System 

lands. It focuses treatments in “short-interval” fire-adapted 

ecosystems—ecosystems where frequent lower-intensity ground 

fires historically occurred and were a powerful force in shaping 

the makeup and structure of vegetative communities. 

The strategy identifies as priority areas for treatment 

• wildland urban interface, 

• municipal watersheds, 

• threatened and endangered species habitats, and 

• the maintenance of low risk Condition Class I areas. 

Identifies priorities 

and focus for 

hazardous fuel 

treatments on 

national forest 

system lands, as 

called for in the 

National Fire Policy

and the 10-year 

Comprehensive 

Strategy. 

Review and Update of the 

1995 Federal Wildland Fire 

Management Policy, 

January 2001 

Web site: 

www.nifc.gov/fire_policy/ 

index.htm

This policy 

• reviews the status of 1995 Fire Policy implementation and 

provides recommendations for full implementation, 

• addresses specific issues raised in the Cerro Grande 

Prescribed Fire Investigation report, 

• recommends creating a senior level interagency mechanism 

to oversee fire policy implementation, 

• recommends a series of strategic implementation actions that 

are essential for wildland fire management, and 

• recommends establishing a new mechanism for ensuring 

coordinated implementation of the policy. 

Reaffirms the 

relevance of the 

1995 Federal Fire 

Policy; provides a 

contemporary and 

comprehensive 

interagency federal 

fire management 

policy to support 

long-term 

implementation of 

the National Fire Plan

and the 10-year 

Comprehensive 

Strategy. 

A Collaborative Approach 

for Reducing Wildland Fire 

Risks to Communities and 

the Environment: 10-year 

Comprehensive Strategy,

August 2001 

Web site: 

www.fireplan.gov/content

/reports/

This coordinated 10-year strategy to comprehensively manage 

wildfire, hazardous fuels, and ecosystem restoration was 

developed in collaboration with governors and in consultation 

with a broad range of stakeholders. Its scope includes federal 

and adjacent state, tribal, and private lands. Its primary goals 

are to 

• improve fire prevention and suppression, 

• reduce hazardous fuels, 

• restore fire-adapted ecosystems, and 

• promote community assistance. 

The core principles of the strategy are collaboration, priority 

setting, and accountability. 

Extends the concepts 

of the Report to the 

President and focus 

of the National Fire 

Plan into a broader, 

longer-term, 

collaborative effort. 
Page 50 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Document or initiative What it does 

Relationship to 

other initiatives 

A Collaborative Approach 

for Reducing Wildland Fire 

Risks to Communities and 

the Environment: 10-year 

Comprehensive Strategy 

Implementation Plan, May 

2002 

Web site: 

www.fireplan.gov/content

/reports/

The plan identifies 22 specific tasks supporting four goals 

identified in the 10-year Comprehensive Strategy and 

performance measures that are interagency and 

interdepartmental in scope. It was developed in collaboration 

with governors and in consultation with a broad range of 

stakeholders. It emphasizes a collaborative, community-based 

approach to address issues related to wildland fires. 

Translates the 

conceptual 

framework of the 10-

year Comprehensive 

Strategy into specific 

actions, identifying 

time frames for 

completion. 

Healthy Forests: An 

Initiative for Wildfire 

Prevention and Stronger 

Communities, August 

2002 

Web site: 

www.whitehouse.gov/ 

infocus/healthyforests/ 

toc.html

This presidential initiative is to better protect people and natural 

resources by lowering the procedural and process hurdles that 

impede the reduction of hazardous fuels on public land, and to 

fulfill the original objectives of the Northwest Forest Plan. The 

initiative has legislative and administrative components. 

The administration will propose to (1) facilitate timely reviews of 

high priority forest health restoration and rehabilitation projects, 

consistent with agency procedures and land and resource 

management plans; (2) amend rules for project appeals to 

hasten the process of reviewing vital forest health projects while 

encouraging meaningful public participation; (3) improve the 

Endangered Species Act process to expedite decisions to allow 

timely completion of fuels treatment projects while providing 

protection for wildlife and restoring habitat; and (4) establish 

improved and more focused process for environmental 

assessments of forest health projects. All these actions will 

make it easier for land managers to restore forest and rangeland 

health, while also engaging communities early, frequently, and 

in a meaningful way in these decisions. These changes will bring 

about more timely actions to restore forest and rangeland 

health. 

The initiative emphasizes using collaborative processes in 

identifying projects and priorities. 

In facilitating fuels 

reduction projects, 

the healthy forest 

initiative would 

speed 

implementation of 

projects, improving 

implementation of 

the National Fire Plan 

and the 10-year 

Comprehensive 

Strategy. It is a 

legislative proposal 

that requires the use 

of a collaborative 

process consistent 

with the 

Implementation Plan 

for the 10-year 

Comprehensive 

Strategy. 

Memorandum of 

Understanding for the 

Development of a 

Collaborative Fuels 

Treatment Program 

among the Department of 

Agriculture (FS), the 

Department of the Interior 

(BLM, FWS, and NPS), the 

National Association of 

State Foresters, and the 

National Association of 

Counties 

January 2003 

Web site: 

www.fireplan.gov/content

/reports/

The memorandum provides the framework of a process for the 

federal land management agencies, the National Association of 

State Foresters, and the National Association of Counties to 

collaborate on the annual selection of a fuels treatment program 

within their respective jurisdictions, in order to provide for 

community protection and enhance the health of forests and 

rangelands. Concentration on high priority areas will be 

facilitated by 

• collaborating by notification and discussion of an annual 

program of work for fuels treatment, 

• completing a proposed program of work by May 1 of each 

year, 

• placing priority on treating acres within states that are 

actively incorporating projects into a joint program of work, 

• taking into account multiyear landscape-level projects across 

ownerships, and 

• considering long-term investments and sequencing of 

projects and building on prior year programs to ensure that 

projects are strategically located and implemented across 

landscapes. 

Consistent with the 

goals, performance 

standards, and 

collaborative 

framework outlined 

in the 10-Year 

Comprehensive 

Strategy and 

Implementation 

Plan. 
Page 51 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Document or initiative What it does 

Relationship to 

other initiatives 

Protecting People and 

Natural Resources: A 

Cohesive Fuel Treatment 

Strategy (Draft) 

February 2003 

The strategy outlines a coordinated approach to fuels treatment 

to be adopted by the five major federal land management 

agencies in the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior. 

The strategy provides considerations for local prioritization in 

project planning to ensure that areas that present the greatest 

risk to communities and cultural, historical, and natural 

resources receive the highest priority for funding. These 

considerations include 

• quality interagency planning, 

• evidence of active community participation, and 

• development of partnerships and other collaborative efforts 

with stakeholders. 

It also explains and clarifies the common goals of fuel 

treatments. It 

• reiterates the mission of the fuels treatment program, 

• clarifies priorities for selecting projects, and 

• spells out the strategy for reducing the risk of wildland fire. 

Emphasizes goals 

two and three in the 

Implementation Plan

for the 10-year 

Comprehensive 

Strategy. Uses 

performance 

measures outlined in 

the 10-year 

Comprehensive 

Strategy to measure 

success. 

2001 Fire Policy 

Implementation Plan (in 

development) 

This implementation plan will develop a common code for fire 

management organizations within the five major federal land 

management agencies in the Departments of Agriculture and the 

Interior. It is to ensure unified implementation of the 2001 Fire 

Policy. 

Provides uniform 

implementation of 

federal fire policy to 

enable effective 

collaboration with 

states, tribes, and 

communities in 

implementing the 

National Fire Plan, 

the 10-year 

Comprehensive 

Strategy, and the 

Interagency 

Cohesive Treatment 

Strategy. 

Sources: Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture. 

a U.S. General Accounting Office, Western National Forests: A Cohesive Strategy Is Needed to Address Catastrophic Wildfire Threats, 

GAO/RCED-99-65 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 2, 1999). 
Page 52 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Appendix III: Federal, State, and Local Entities with Land 

Management, Technology, or Other Fire-Related Roles 

Under the National Fire Plan, five federal land management 

agencies lead the efforts to develop wildland fire policies and 

initiatives. However, many other federal agencies and nonfederal 

associations also have a role in wildland fire management. The 

federal entities include agencies that manage other federal lands; 

agencies that research, manage, or use technologies that can aid in 

wildland fire management; and agencies with other fire-related 

responsibilities. The nonfederal entities include key state, local, 

and international organizations, which collaborate with the federal 

agencies on wildland fire management. Key federal, state, and local 

organizations and their roles in wildland fire management are 

identified below. 

Federal Departments and Agencies 

Five federal agencies have key responsibilities for managing more 

than 90 percent of all federal lands.20 

• The Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service manages 191 

million acres of national forests and grasslands; its mission is to 

sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of these areas to 

meet the needs of present and future generations. 

• The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management 

manages 261 million acres of public domain lands. Its mission is to 

sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of these public lands 

for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. Most 

of the land managed by Bureau of Land Management is located 

west of the Mississippi. 

• The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs 

administers and manages 56 million acres of land that is held in 

trust by the United States for American Indians, Indian tribes, and 

Alaska natives. Its mission includes developing forestlands, leasing 

assets on these lands, directing agricultural programs, protecting 

 

20 Several of these agencies also provide scientific research, technology, and products in 

support of the land management missions. 
Page 53 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

water and land rights, developing and maintaining infrastructure, 

providing for health, human services, and economic development. 

• The Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service manages 

93 million acres of national wildlife refuges and wetland areas. Its 

mission is to work with others to conserve, protect, and enhance 

fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats for the continuing 

benefit of the American people. 

• The Department of the Interior’s National Park Service administers 

over 80 million acres of national parks, monuments, historic sites, 

natural areas, and other federal lands. Its mission is to preserve the 

natural and cultural resources and values of the national park 

system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of present 

and future generations. 

In addition to the five federal land management agencies, three 

other federal departments manage extensive tracts of federal land. 

• The Department of Defense manages about 38 million acres at 

bases and installations around the country and has fire 

management responsibility for these lands. 

• The Bureau of Reclamation manages about 9 million acres of land. 

• The Department of Energy manages about 2.4 million acres of land. 

Other federal entities research, manage, or use technologies that 

can aid in wildland fire management. 

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, through its

Earth Science Enterprise research and development efforts, 

partners with federal agencies with fire management 

responsibilities to provide satellite remote sensing images and 

other science and data products. 

• The Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration operates satellites, manages the daily processing 

and distribution of data and images produced by these satellites; 

conducts research, develops innovative technologies and 

observation systems, and prepares weather and fire weather 

forecasts—all of which provide useful information to fire 

management officials who plan and manage wildland fires. 

• The Department of Defense’s National Imagery and Mapping 

Agency provides imagery and geospatial information in support of 

the national security objectives of the United States. At the request 
Page 54 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

of the National Interagency Fire Center, through the Forest Service, 

the agency uses multiple sources of imagery and geospatial data to 

provide map products to assist the fire community with fire 

suppression efforts. 

• The Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey contributes 

to wildland fire management by conducting fire-related research to 

meet the varied needs of the fire management community and to 

understand the role of fire in the landscape. This research includes 

fire management support, studies of postfire effects, and a wide 

range of studies on fire history and ecology. In addition, the U.S. 

Geological Survey supports the wildland fire community by 

providing earth science information through (1) receipt and 

archiving of remotely sensed land data and (2) geographical 

scientific information that describes and interprets the nation’s 

landscape. 

Other federal entities also have fire-related responsibilities. 

• The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency 

Management Agency, the lead agency for emergency management 

in the federal government, provides financial assistance for the 

mitigation, management, and control of fires burning on publicly 

or privately owned forests or grasslands. The agency also provides 

maps of geologic and flood hazards to support fire management. 

• The Environmental Protection Agency develops and enforces 

regulations regarding the environment, including the effects of 

wildland fire on air quality. 

State, Local, and Other Associations and Committees 

Many state, local, international, and private organizations 

participate in wildland fire management. 

• The National Association of State Foresters, the largest nonfederal 

firefighting partner, is a nonprofit organization that represents the 

directors of the state forestry agencies from all 50 states, 8 U.S. 

territories, and the District of Columbia. The state foresters 

provide management assistance and protection services for over 

two-thirds of the nation’s forests. The association is a member of 

both the National Wildfire Coordinating Group and the Wildland 

Fire Leadership Council. 
Page 55 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

• The Intertribal Timber Council is a nationwide consortium of 

Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, and individuals 

dedicated to improving the management of natural resources of 

importance to Native American communities. The Council is a 

member of both the National Wildfire Coordinating Group and the 

Wildland Fire Leadership Council. 

• The National Fire Protection Association’s mission is to reduce the 

worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life 

by providing and advocating scientifically based consensus codes 

and standards, research, training, and education. The association’s 

membership totals more than 75,000 individuals from around the 

world and more than 80 national trade and professional 

organizations. 

• The Fire Control Officers Group is an umbrella organization 

consisting of fire control officers from the forest fire management 

agencies in all Australian states and New Zealand, with additional 

representation from industry, research, and education. The group 

develops and maintains international relationships with fire 

management agencies in the United States. 

• The National Governors’ Association deals with issues of public 

policy and governance relating to the states. The association’s 

ongoing mission is to support the work of the governors by 

providing a bipartisan forum to help shape and implement national 

policy and to solve state problems. 

• The National Association of Counties seeks to represent the 

nation’s 3,066 counties; its membership totals more than 2,000 

counties, representing over 80 percent of the nation’s population. 

As a member of the Wildland Fire Leadership Council and in 

working with the National Association of State Foresters, the 

association is a lead collaborator on such wildland fire issues as 

(1) assessing the training, equipment, and safety awareness of and 

services provided by rural, volunteer, and other firefighters who 

work in the wildland urban interface and (2) annually selecting fuel 

treatment and ecosystem restoration projects within jurisdictions. 

• The Western Governors’ Association, composed of the governors of 

18 states and 3 islands in the Pacific, addresses important policy 

and governance issues in the West—in particular wildland fire 

issues, because of the prevalence and severity of fires and 

grassland fires in these states. 
Page 56 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

• The International Association of Fire Chiefs is a network of more 

than 12,000 chief fire and emergency officers. The association’s 

mission is to provide leadership to chief fire officers and managers 

of emergency services organizations. The International Association 

of Fire Chiefs also prepares awareness and training information on 

the use of minimum impact suppression activities. 

• The National Volunteer Fire Council, a nonprofit membership 

association, represents the interest of the volunteer fire, emergency 

medical, and rescue services. 

• The International Association of Wildland Fire is a nonprofit, 

professional association representing members of the global 

wildland fire community. The purpose of the association is to 

facilitate communication and provide leadership for the wildland 

fire community. 

• The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to preserve the plants, 

animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of 

life on earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to 

survive. One of the Nature Conservancy's five priority conservation 

initiatives is to play a leading role in restoring fire-altered 

ecosystems by working to counter the threats posed to both human 

and natural communities where the role of fire is severely out of 

balance. 

• The Wilderness Society seeks to save, protect, and restore 

America’s wilderness areas through the combination of scientific 

expertise, analysis, advocacy, and education. The Wilderness 

Society’s Wildland Fire Program is an interdisciplinary program 

designed to return fire to fire-dependent ecosystems in a socially 

acceptable manner. 
Page 57 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Appendix IV: Remote Sensing Systems 

Remote sensing systems observe data in one or more bands of the 

electromagnetic spectrum, including the visible, near-infrared, midinfrared, thermal infrared, and microwave bands. Data from 

different bands provide different kinds of information. For 

example, data observed in the thermal infrared band can identify 

heat sources that are not observable in the visible band of the 

electromagnetic spectrum. When data are collected from multiple 

bands or from multiple channels within a band, a more 

sophisticated analysis can be performed. 

Remote sensors are often characterized by the type of observations 

they perform and their resulting products. Common types of 

sensors include panchromatic imaging sensors, multispectral 

imaging sensors, hyperspectral imaging sensors, radio detection 

and ranging (radar) sensors, and light detection and ranging 

(LIDAR) sensors. A definition of each type of sensor follows. 

• Panchromatic imaging sensors collect data in a single band of the 

electromagnetic spectrum. These data are then processed to 

provide a black and white image. 

• Multispectral imaging sensors collect data in multiple, 

noncontiguous, wide-wavelength bands, which are then combined 

to create color images. 

• Hyperspectral imaging sensors collect data in multiple, 

contiguous, narrow-wavelength bands. Because different materials 

absorb and reflect light differently, analysis of detailed 

hyperspectral data can identify different materials, minerals, and 

species. 

• Radar sensors emit a high-frequency radio wave to determine a 

remote object’s velocity, position, or other characteristic by 

analyzing the radio wave reflected from the remote object. Radar 

sensors can acquire images through clouds, fog, and darkness. 

• LIDAR sensors emit a light beam and analyze the reflected and 

scattered light that is returned to the collection instrument. This 

measured change enables LIDAR to penetrate a forest canopy to 

map the floor and can aid in the determination of topographic 

elevations. 
Page 58 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Remote sensing systems can be placed on satellite and aerial 

platforms. These platforms can be government-owned or 

commercial. Currently, there are numerous government-owned and 

commercial remote sensing systems—used on both satellite and 

aerial platforms. Table 2 identifies characteristics of several 

different remote sensing systems that are currently operational. 

Key characteristics that help distinguish one system from another 

include image resolution (the size of the objects that can be 

depicted in an image) and revisit rate (the rate at which a platform 

returns to an area). 

Table 2: Characteristics of Selected Remote Sensing Systems 

Sensor Platform Sensor type 

Image 

resolution 

(meters) Revisit rate 

Thematic Mapper NASA 

Satellite: 

Landsat-5 

Multispectral 

(Observed spectral bands: 

visible, near infrared, short 

wave infrared, and thermal 

infrared) 

30–120 16 days 

(offset 8 days 

from Landsat-7) 

Enhanced 

Thematic Mapper+ 

NASA 

Satellite: 

Landsat-7 

Panchromatic, multispectral 

(Observed spectral bands: 

visible, near-infrared, shortwave infrared, and thermal 

infrared) 

15–60 16 days 

(offset 8 days 

from Landsat-5) 

Advanced Very 

High Resolution 

Radiometer 

NOAA 

Satellites: 

Polar-orbiting 

Operational 

Environmental 

Satellites 

Multispectral 

(Observed spectral bands: 

visible, near-infrared, and 

thermal infrared) 

1,100 0.5 days 

Advanced 

Spaceborne 

Thermal Emission 

and Reflection 

Radiometer 

NASA 

Satellite: 

Earth 

Observing 

System/Terra 

Multispectral 

(Observed spectral bands: 

visible, near-infrared, shortwave infrared, and thermal 

infrared) 

15–90 16 days 

Moderate 

Resolution Imaging 

Spectroradiometer 

NASA 

Satellites: 

Earth 

Observing 

System/Aqua 

and Terra 

Multispectral 

(Observed spectral bands: 

visible, near-infrared, shortwave infrared, and thermal 

infrared) 

250–1,000 1–2 days 

Panchromatic 

Multispectral, 

Low Resolution 

Indian 

Satellite: 

IRS-1C, 

IRS-1D 

Panchromatic, Multispectral 

(Observed spectral bands: 

visible, near-infrared, and shortwave infrared) 

5.8–188 5–24 days 
Page 59 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Sensor Platform Sensor type 

Image 

resolution 

(meters) Revisit rate 

High Resolution 

Geometric, Visible 

and Infrared 

French 

Satellites: 

SPOT 4 and 5 

Panchromatic, multispectral 

(Observed spectral bands: 

visible, near-infrared, and shortwave infrared) 

2.5–20 1–4 days 

High resolution 

imaging sensors 

Private sector 

satellites 

(Ikonos, 

Quickbird) 

Panchromatic, multispectral 

(Observed spectral bands: 

visible and near-infrared) 

0.6–4 Varies by vendor: 

3–5 days 

High resolution 

imaging sensors 

Aircraft Panchromatic, multispectral 

(Observed spectral bands: 

varies by vendor) 

Varies by 

vendor: 

often 0.5–1 

As warranted 

Phoenix infrared 

scanner 

National 

Interagency 

Fire Center 

aircraft 

Multispectral 

(Observed spectral band: 

thermal infrared) 

0.25–1 As warranted 

Sources: Forest Service, Remote Sensing Applications Center, GAO. 
Page 60 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Appendix V: Examples of Applications with Geospatial 

Components Supporting Wildland Fire Management 

The following tables provide examples of different applications 

with geospatial information components that are used in support 

of wildland fire management activities. Table 3 provides examples 

of operational applications, and table 4 provides examples of 

developmental applications. 

Table 3: Examples of Operational Applications 

Name and description Lead entities Users For more information 

Automated Flight Following: 

transmits geographic positions of 

aircraft for graphical display 

Forest Service (FS) Bureau of Indian 

Affairs (BIA) 

Bureau of Land 

Management (BLM) 

Forest Service (FS) 

Fish and Wildlife 

Service (FWS) 

National Park Service 

(NPS) 

https://aff.nifc.gov

Automated Lightning 

Mapping System: downloads 

and maps near-real-time 

lightning location information 

from the BLM lightning data 

server 

FS BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/planning

/nist/alms.htm#ALMS

California Fire Plan 

Assessment System: assesses 

weather, fuels, and assets at 

risk to identify areas to target 

for mitigation projects 

California California http://www.fire.ca.gov/ 

fireemergencyresponse/fireplan/ 

chapter3.html

Coarse Scale Spatial Data for 

Wildland Fire and Fuel 

Management: provides 

nationwide coarse-scale 

vegetation and fire regime 

mapping 

FS Multiple users 

(including federal, 

state, and local 

governments as well 

as the public) 

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/fuelman

Ecosystem Management 

Model: simulates ecosystem 

processes and evaluates 

resource management actions 

before their implementation 

Canada 

Fire and Fuels Extension to 

Forest Vegetation Simulator:

simulates effects of treatment 

alternatives on fuel dynamics 

and fire potential into the future 

FS FS (regional use) http://forest.moscowfsl.wsu.edu/ 

4155/ffe-fvs.html
Page 61 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Name and description Lead entities Users For more information 

Fire Area Simulator 

(FARSITE): simulates and 

maps fire growth and behavior 

under complex terrain, fuels, 

and weather conditions 

FS BLM 

FS 

NPS 

State governments 

Local governments 

http://www.farsite.org

Fire Potential Index: provides 

national fire potential mapping 

based on vegetation and 

weather data 

FS 

U.S. Geological 

Survey (USGS) 

Multiple users 

(including federal, 

state, and local 

governments as well 

as the public) 

http://www.fs.fed.us/land/wfas/ 

experment.htm

FirePac: provides tools for a 

variety of fire management 

applications, including fire 

perimeter mapping 

NPS BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/gis/ 

incident-support/firepac.htm

Forest Vegetation 

Information System: stores, 

retrieves, and analyzes data 

used to inventory and monitor 

vegetation on forested lands 

BLM BLM http://www.blm.gov/nstc/ 

resourcenotes/rn48.html

FX-Net: provides portable 

weather forecasting 

National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric 

Administration 

(NOAA) 

BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

National Weather 

Service 

http://www-id.fsl.noaa.gov/ 

fxnet.html

GeoMAC: provides Internetbased national fire monitoring 

and perimeter mapping 

USGS BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

Public 

http://www.geomac.gov

Immediate Response Burn 

Severity Mapping for Burned 

Area Emergency Response 

Teams: provides preliminary 

burn severity mapping to FS 

fires and provides support to 

other agency fires on request 

FS BIA 

BLM 

FS 

NPS 

http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/rsac/ 

baer

Immediate Response Burn 

Severity Mapping for 

Emergency Stabilization and 

Rehabilitation Teams: 

provides preliminary burn 

severity mapping 

USGS BIA 

BLM 

FWS 

NPS 

http://edc2.usgs.gov/fsp/severity

/fire_main.asp

Initial Attack Management 

System: records, monitors, and 

reports aviation hazards and 

restrictions 

BLM 

FS 

BLM 

FS 

http://www.nifc.blm.gov/nsdu/ 

aviation

 

Initial Attack Management 

System Maps Viewer: provides 

graphical representation of 

various kinds of geographic data 

BLM BLM 

FS 

Alaska Fire Service version at 

http://fire.ak.blm.gov/scripts/ 

maps/maps.asp
Page 62 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Name and description Lead entities Users For more information 

Integrated Forest 

Management System:

integrates vegetation/fuels data 

and tools for fuels reduction 

analysis 

FS FS (regional use) http://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth

/technology/products/informs/INF

overview.html

Landscape Fire Model: 

provides for land use planning 

 BLM (Alaska) 

Landscape Simulation Model: 

provides spatially explicit 

landscape dynamics simulation 

modeling for southern Utah 

FS FS (regional use) http://www.firelab.org/fep/ 

research/sufm/studyplan/ls.htm

Lightning Data: displays realtime lightning information and 

provides tracking capability 

BLM BLM 

FS 

http://www.nifc.blm.gov/nsdu/ 

lightning/

Meteorology for Fire Severity 

Forecasting: provides monthly 

forecasts of weather-induced fire 

potential for the continental 

United States 

FS http://met.rfl.psw.fs.fed.us/met/ 

MFWF.html

MODIS Active Fire Mapping: 

provides coarse-scale mapping 

of current wildfire locations and 

fire perimeters 

FS 

National Aeronautics 

and Space 

Administration 

(NASA) 

BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

Public 

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us

Multi-Resource Analysis and 

Geographic Information:

schedules treatments to meet 

resource and management 

objectives and computes tradeoffs associated with the 

treatment schedule 

FS Multiple users 

(including federal, 

state, and local 

governments as well 

as the public) 

http://www.forestry.umt.edu/ 

magis

National Fire Danger Rating 

System: uses fuels, topography, 

and weather to derive national 

maps of potential fire occurrence 

and behavior 

FS Multiple users 

(including federal, 

state, and local 

governments as well 

as the public) 

http://www.fs.fed.us/land/wfas/ 

wfas23.html

National Fire Plan Maps: 

provides Internet-based 

mapping of hazardous fuels 

program projects in relation to 

wildland urban interface 

communities 

USGS BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

http://www.fireplan.gov

National Fire Plan Operations 

& Reporting System 

(NFPORS): provides Internetbased mapping and data 

collection for restoration and 

rehabilitation, hazardous fuels 

reduction, and community 

assistance projects 

Department of the 

Interior 

FS 

BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

http://www.nfpors.gov
Page 63 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Name and description Lead entities Users For more information 

National Wildland Fire 

Outlook: provides seasonal and 

monthly maps and narratives of 

the national wildland fire outlook 

National Interagency 

Coordination Center 

Multiple users 

(including federal, 

state, and local 

governments as well 

as the public) 

http://www.nifc.gov/ 

firemaps.html

NFSPUFF: models smoke 

dispersion for complex terrains 

in the western United States 

FS FS (western U.S.) http://www.frames.gov/tools/html

/NFSPUFF.detailed.html

Normalized Difference 

Vegetation Index: provides 

national vegetation greenness 

mapping 

USGS Multiple users 

(including federal, 

state, and local 

governments as well 

as the public) 

http://www.fs.fed.us/land/wfas/ 

wfas11.html

NPS-USGS National Burn 

Severity Mapping: provides 

extended assessment burn 

severity mapping for long-term 

monitoring of fire effects 

NPS 

USGS 

NPS http://edc2.usgs.gov/fsp/severity

/fire_main.asp

Personal Computer Historical 

Analysis: analyzes historical 

wildland fire occurrence for 

wildland fire planning 

FS BIA 

BLM 

FS 

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/planning

/nist/pcha.htm

Phoenix Digital Signal 

Processor: provides infrared 

fire detection and mapping 

FS BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

http://nirops.fs.fed.us

Real-time Observation 

Monitor and Analysis 

Network: provides current fire 

weather conditions nationwide 

BLM 

University of Utah 

http://www.met.utah.edu/roman

Resources Ordering and 

Status System: automates 

resource ordering, dispatching, 

and reporting; geospatial 

component is planned 

FS BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

Federal Emergency 

Management Agency

State governments 

http://ross.nwcg.gov

Risk Assessment and 

Mitigation Strategies: 

provides a process for 

developing prevention and fuels 

management programs 

BLM BIA 

BLM 

http://www.nifc.blm.gov/nsdu/fire

_planning/rams

SAM Sensitive Area Program: 

provides spatial analyses for 

mapping complex resource 

issues for overflight planning 

NPS NPS http://www.nps.gov/gis/ 

applications/new_apps.html

Southern State Fuel Hazard 

Mapping: provides a map of 

fuel hazards and a fuel model for 

all southeastern states 

FS FS (regional) 

FWS 

State governments 

Local governments 
Page 64 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Name and description Lead entities Users For more information 

Tool for Exploratory 

Landscape Scenario Analysis: 

helps resource managers and 

planners assess the 

consequences of alternative 

management scenarios at the 

scale of landscape units 

FS FS http://www.eessa.com/downloads

/telsa

Utah Wildfire Initial Attack 

Dispatch Application Cedar 

City Support Center: provides 

dispatching of fire personnel and 

geospatial information system 

capabilities 

Utah BIA (regional use) 

BLM (regional use) 

NPS (regional use) 

Utah 

Ventilation Climate 

Information System: assesses 

risks to values of air quality and 

visibility from historical patterns 

of ventilation conditions 

FS Multiple users 

(including federal, 

state, and local 

governments as well 

as the public) 

http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/fera/ 

vent

Wildfire Hazard Identification 

and Mitigation System: 

combines wildfire hazard 

assessment, prevention, and 

suppression expertise with fire 

and forest management 

knowledge 

Boulder County, 

Colorado 

Local government http://www.co.boulder.co.us/lu/ 

wildfire/whims.htm

Wildland Fire Assessment 

System: provides Internetbased national fire potential and 

weather mapping 

FS Multiple users 

(including federal, 

state, and local 

governments as well 

as the public) 

http://www.fs.fed.us/land/wfas

Wildland Fire Management 

Information System: provides 

Internet-based weather, 

lightning, fire reporting, and 

aviation information 

BLM BLM http://www.nifc.blm.gov

Sources: NWCG, FS, BLM, GAO. 

Table 4: Examples of Developmental Applications 

Name and description Lead entities Planned users For more information 

Fire Behavior Mapping and 

Analysis: is to map potential 

fire behavior characteristics and 

environmental conditions using 

topography and fuels data layers 

FS FS (local use) http://fire.org/cgi-bin/ 

nav.cgi?pages=JFSP&mode=11

Fire Effects Assessment 

Tools: is to provide fire ecology 

and vegetation data collection, 

data handling, and data analysis 

NPS NPS http://ftp.nps.gov/incoming/fire/ 

feat_cbi

Fire Effects Monitoring and 

Inventory Protocol: is to

provide standards for 

implementing a monitoring 

program before and after a burn 

FS 

USGS 

— http://fire.org/firemon
Page 65 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Name and description Lead entities Planned users For more information 

Fire Internet Map Server: is

to provide a spatial display of 

current fire intelligence 

information 

BLM BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/gis/ 

Documents/FIMS_FINAL_RPT.doc

Fire Program Analysis: is to 

conduct analyses for fire 

management planning and 

budgeting 

FS BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

http://fpa.nifc.gov

FireSat: is to provide national 

wildland fire detection (formerly 

called the Hazard Support 

System and the Integrated 

Hazard Information System) 

USGS (1997) 

NOAA (2001) 

Federal Emergency 

Management Agency 

(late 2002) 

— 

Incident Based Automation: 

is to automate management 

activities during a fire incident 

FS BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

Landscape and Fire 

Management Planning Tools 

(LANDFIRE): is to provide 

nationwide vegetation/fuels 

mapping and predictive models 

needed for fuel treatment and 

restoration projects 

FS 

USGS 

BIA 

BLM 

FS 

FWS 

NPS 

http://www.landfire.gov

National Land Cover Data 

2001: is to provide nationwide 

intermediate-scale land cover 

mapping 

Environmental 

Protection Agency 

FS 

NOAA 

USGS 

— http://landcover.usgs.gov/ 

nationallandcover.html

National Park Service 

Vegetation and Fuels 

Mapping: is to provide 

vegetation/fuels mapping of NPS 

lands 

NPS 

USGS 

NPS http://biology.usgs.gov/npsveg

Southern Wildfire Risk 

Assessment: is to provide tools 

to help analyze mitigation 

options and estimate their 

impact on wildland fire risk for 

13 southern states

Southern state 

governments 

Southern states 

FS 

http://corp.spaceimaging.com/ 

swra/

Sources: NWCG, FS, BLM, GAO. 
Page 66 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Appendix VI: Comments from the Departments of 

Agriculture and the Interior 
Page 67 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 
Page 68 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Appendix VII: GAO Contacts and Acknowledgments 

GAO Contacts 

David A. Powner, (202) 512-9286, (303) 572-7316 or 

pownerd@gao.gov

Colleen M. Phillips, (202) 512-6326 or phillipsc@gao.gov

Acknowledgements 

In addition to those named above, Barbara Collier, Neil Doherty, 

Joanne Fiorino, Richard Hung, Chester Joy, Anjalique Lawrence, 

Tammi Nguyen, Megan Secrest, Karl Seifert, Lisa Warnecke, and 

Glenda Wright made key contributions to this report. 
Page 69 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Glossary 

The following terms are used in the geospatial and wildland fire 

communities. 

Aerial Photography Taking photographs from the air, such as a photograph of part of 

the Earth’s surface, with a camera mounted in an aircraft; usually 

involves taking strips of overlapping prints for mapping purposes. 

Burn Severity A qualitative assessment of the heat pulse directed toward the 

ground during a fire. Burn severity relates to soil heating, large fuel 

and duff consumption, consumption of the litter and organic layer 

beneath trees and isolated shrubs, and mortality of buried plant 

parts. 

Burned Area The full range of postfire activities to rehabilitate and restore fireRehabilitation damaged lands, including protection of public health and safety. 

Digital Aerial Data A computer representation of imagery acquired from an aircraft. 

This type of data is produced either by digitizing aerial 

photographs or through direct acquisition by electronic sensors 

such as digital cameras or Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) thermal 

imaging sensors. 

Duff The layer of decomposing organic materials lying below the litter 

layer of freshly fallen twigs, needles, and leaves and immediately 

above the mineral soil. 

Fire Prevention Activities, including education, engineering, enforcement and 

administration, that are directed at reducing the number of 

wildfires, the costs of suppression, and fire-caused damages to 

resources and property. 

Fire Suppression All work and activities connected with fire-extinguishing 

operations, beginning with discovery and continuing until the fire 

is completely extinguished. 

Fuel Combustible material. 

Fuel Condition Relative flammability of fuel as determined by fuel type and 

environmental conditions. 
Page 70 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Fuel Reduction Manipulation or removal of fuels to reduce the likelihood of 

ignition, to lessen the potential damage and resistance to control, 

or both (e.g., lopping, chipping, crushing, piling, and burning). 

Fuel Treatment (See fuel reduction.) 

Geographic or Information about a phenomenon that can be referenced to a 

Geospatial Information specific location relative to the earth’s surface. 

Geographic A system of computer software, hardware, and data used to 

Information manipulate, analyze, and graphically display a potentially wide 

System (GIS) array of information associated with geographic locations. 

Typically, a GIS is used for handling maps of one kind or another. 

These maps might be represented as several different layers, where 

each layer holds data about a particular kind of feature (e.g., 

roads). Each feature is linked to a position on the graphical image 

of a map. 

Geographic or A broad term encompassing all forms of technology to gather, 

Geospatial Information display, sample, and process geographic or geospatial information, 

Technology including in particular GIS, remote sensing, and use of the Global 

Positioning System. 

Global Positioning A system of navigational satellites operated by the U.S. Department 

System (GPS) of Defense and available for civilian use. The system can track 

objects anywhere in the world with an accuracy of approximately 

40 feet. 

Hyperspectral Imaging Type of imaging that records many tens of bands of imagery at 

very narrow bandwidths. 

Infrared Imaging Producing images using the thermal infrared spectral band; used 

for fire detection, mapping, and hotspot identification. 

Initial Attack The actions taken by the first responders to arrive at a wildfire to 

protect lives and property, and prevent further extension of the 

fire. 

LIDAR (From “light detection and ranging.”) An instrument capable of 

measuring distance and direction to an object by emitting timed 

pulses of light in a measured direction based on the time between 

when a pulse is emitted and when its echo is received. Threedimensional information is computed by relating these distances 

and direction measurements to the location and orientation of the 

instrument. Airborne LIDAR instruments are used to develop threedimensional data, such as digital elevation models, tree and 

building heights, and feature geometry. 
Page 71 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

Multispectral Imaging Acquiring optical images in more than one spectral band. 

Preparedness Condition or degree of being ready to cope with a potential fire 

situation. 

Prescribed Fire Controlled application of fire to wildland fuels, in either their 

natural or modified state, under specified environmental 

conditions, which allows the fire to be confined to a predetermined 

area and produces the fire behavior and fire characteristics 

required to attain planned fire treatment and resource 

management objectives. 

Presuppression Activities in advance of fire occurrence to ensure effective 

suppression action. Includes planning the organization, recruiting 

and training, procuring equipment and supplies, maintaining fire 

equipment and fire control improvements, and negotiating 

cooperative or mutual aid agreements. 

Prevention Activities directed at reducing the incidence of fires, including 

public education, law enforcement, personal contact, and reduction 

of fuel hazards (fuels management). 

Radar (From “radio detection and ranging.”) An instrument that emits a 

narrow beam of electromagnetic pulses (radio waves) in a specific 

direction and measures the time, intensity, or other characteristics 

of the energy that returns from targets or objects. Radar imagery 

can be obtained at night or through clouds and smoke. Radar 

images provide a unique visual impression, and advanced analysis 

of radar imagery usually requires specific experience, knowledge, 

and facilities. 

Rehabilitation The activities necessary to repair damage or disturbance caused by 

a wildfire or the wildfire suppression activity. 

Remote Sensing Process of determining properties of objects without contact, 

usually by measuring and recording images based on the 

electromagnetic energy that has interacted with the objects. 

Remote sensing also involves the manipulation of images to derive 

useful information. Remote sensing traditionally involves aerial 

photography but now includes many electronic sensors on both 

airborne and space-based platforms. 

Satellite A space-based platform for sensors that measure, image, receive, 

and transmit data from an orbital path above the earth. 

Spatial Resolution Spatial resolution is a measure of the size of the smallest feature 

that can be distinguished in an image. That is, in a 30-meter 
Page 72 GAO-03-1047 Wildland Fires 

resolution image, one could discern objects 30 meters and larger. 

Images with smaller discernable objects are considered to have 

higher resolutions. 

Suppression All the work of extinguishing or confining a fire, beginning with its 

discovery. 

Thermal Imaging (See infrared imaging.) 

Wildfire A fire occurring on wildland that is not meeting management 

objectives and thus requires a suppression response. 

Wildland An area in which development is essentially nonexistent, except for 

roads, railroads, power lines, and similar transportation features, 

and structures, if any, are widely scattered. 

Wildland Fire Any fire occurring on the wildlands, regardless of ignition source, 

damages, or benefits. 

(310353) 
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