# Development of the User Requirements for the Canadian WildFireSat Satellite Mission
## 2 Wildfire Management Needs Assessment
### Summary of Wildfire Manager Needs
#### 2.2.2 Mapping of Active and Inactive Wildfire Areas  
Although there is a definite interest in the actively spreading portion, intelligence is required for the entire wildfire. The full perimeter of the burned area as well as the active and previously burned area are valuable in wildfire operations. Previously burned areas may still be smoldering and require prolonged suppression, while unburned \"islands\" in these areas pose a threat for re-burning. Managers also indicated that they were satisfied with the 375 m spatial resolution of the VIIRS I-band wildfire products [47; 55], for general applications (though for high complexity incidents fine resolution airborne mapping may also be necessary).  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Role in Wildfire** & **Description** & **Percent of** \\
**Management** & **Respondents** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{Aerial Operations} & Roles range from Air Operations Branch Director, Air Attack Officers, and Aerial Detection Leaders. In some agencies, these staff coordinate high-level infrared services and other mapping/scanning roles. & \multirow{2}{*}{17\%} \\  & The IC has overall authority and responsibility for conducting incident operations and is responsible for the management of all operations. Levels 1 and 2 are those that lead the most complex wildfire situations. & \multirow{2}{*}{22\%} \\ \hline Incident Commander (IC) Types 3 to 5 & Same as above, however the wildfires are less complex. & \multirow{2}{*}{9\%} \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{Plans Section} & Roles range from Planning Section Chiefs, Fire Behaviour Analysts, Situation Unit Leaders, GIS, prediction and forecasting services. In some agencies, these staff coordinate airborne infrared services and other mapping operations. & \multirow{2}{*}{13\%} \\ \cline{1-1} \cline{2-2} Group Responses & Consisting of agency-selected individuals including skills from roles above. & \multirow{2}{*}{39\%} \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 1: Wildfire management experience levels ranged from 10–39 years with a median of 25 years. Of the 13 Canadian fire management agencies, 7 agencies responded to the survey (specifically: Agencies from Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, and Parks Canada).  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Intelligence Type**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Product**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Tactical Decision Making**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Strategic Decision Making**} \\ \cline{3-8}  & & **Likert Ranking** & **Ideal Time** & **Threshold Time** & **Likert Ranking** & **Ideal Time** & **Threshold Time** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{Active-Free Observation} & Wildfire detection and clustering & 5 & 1 & 120 & 5 & 15 & 1440 \\  & Rate and direction of spread & 4 & 15 & 120 & 4 & 17.5 & 300 \\  & Fire intensity & 5 & 15 & 720 & 5 & 12.5 & 240 \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{Active-Free Modeling} & Smoke mapping & 2 & 30 & 720 & 3 & 45 & 560 \\  & Suppression effectiveness & 3 & 10 & 660 & 3 & 17.5 & 660 \\  & Proximity to interface zones & 5 & 5 & 120 & 5 & 15 & 240 \\  & Risk & 3 & 60 & 190 & 3 & 60 & 360 \\  & Assimilation into FGM & 5 & 5 & 720 & 5 & 5 & 720 \\  & FGM prediction & 3 & 20 & 720 & 3 & 17.5 & 720 \\  & Fuel type verification & 3 & 22.5 & 720 & 3 & 20 & 720 \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Pre/Post-Fire Observation} & Burned area & 3 & 60 & 1440 & 5 & 60 & 1440 \\  & Burn severity & 2 & 120 & 1440 & 3 & 90 & 1440 \\ \cline{1-1}  & Arrival time & 4 & 60 & 840 & 3 & 60 & 1440 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Summary of median latency requirements (minutes) for tactical and strategic decision making. FGM refers Fire Growth Modeling. Ideal and threshold times reflect the median desired data latency and the time at the data was considered no longer valuable for the intended purpose. Likert scoring (1–5; unimportant to very important) is presented as the mode value of the respondent rankings.