GIS and the Spread of the Station Fire

GIS and the Spread of the Station Fire

GIS is an important tool that allows individuals to pose and answer question. The presentation of information visually further allows individuals to analyze information. These important aspects of GIS can be applied to numerous possible questions regarding the Station Fire in Southern California. One such question is what factors enabled the fire to spread quickly without containment? As one may see, some basic aspects of GIS may enable amateur analysis of this question.

One aspect that may have lead to the rapid progression of the station fire was the lack of roads within the area. First, the major freeways of the region completely enclose the region (www.maps.google.com). Only a couple of highways, mainly State Highway 2, lead up to the affected area. Secondly, major roads of the region follow this pattern similarly. When comparing the density of roads of more urban areas to the affected areas, one can easily distinguish that the affected area has a lower density of roads. Lastly, as predicted, local streets snake into the burned areas minimally. In relation to the Station Fire, streets could easily be a contributing factor to the fires propagation. The lack of streets within the affected areas may have allowed the fire to proliferate. Had there been additional infrastructure, one can hypothesis that firefighters may have combated the fire more effectively. Thus, the lack of roads within the areas affected by the Station Fire may have contributed to the fire’s uncontrollable growth.

In our modern world, helicopters and planes are additional resources used to combat fires. The main method helicopters fight fires is by picking water up at local reservoir. The only immediate reservoir helicopters had access to in fighting the blaze was The Big Tujunga Reservoir (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5n1RZpXLBs, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_Fire_(2009)#Los_Angeles_County). Additional reservoirs are found within surrounding areas but are quite distant. Additionally, helicopters must constantly refuel at the nearest heliport or airport. These are quite distant as displayed. Consequently, one may expect longer times between water drops allowing for rapid propagation of the fire. Furthermore, air tankers also battled the fire (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0IK31DXnLc&feature=related). Unlike helicopters, they must land in order to refill the fire retardant. Similar to helicopters, these actions must take time allowing for the fire to propagate. Therefore, the distance of reservoirs and airports may have contributed to the spread of the Station Fire.

In the thematic 3-dimensional rendering map, one can see the terrain that increased the difficulty of containing the fire (http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/). First, one can easily see how the terrain may have affected the firefighter’s ability to strategically battle the fire. Additionally, the terrain definitely would have affected the helicopters and more so, the air tankers. In a mountainous terrain, aerial vehicles have difficulty making water drops closer to the surface. Thus, water drops must be done at higher altitudes reducing their effectiveness. Consequently, the 3-dimensional rendering clearly displays the difficulty of battling the fire in all aspects.

The progression of the Station Fire can be attributed to many factors pertaining to the region. By displaying the data using GIS, one can easily distinguish how factors may have possibly caused the fires progression. By incorporating the information into multiple maps, GIS presents the data in an organized manner. However, the 3-dimensional rendering displays some limits of GIS. The color overlay of the fire’s progression is irregular. Overall, GIS allows one to present the information visually in order to analyze what factors may have contributed to the spread of the Station Fire.

Works Cited
2009 California Wildfires. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_Fire_(2009)#Los_Angeles_County.

GoogleMaps. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. www.maps.google.com.

InciWeb Incident Information System. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/.

Los Angeles County Enterprise GIS. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. http://gis.lacounty.gov/eGIS/?cat=11.

Mapshare. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. http://gis.ats.ucla.edu//Mapshare/Default.cfm.

The National Map Seamless Server. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. .

Digital Elevation Models

3D Elevation Map

Aspect Map

Slope Map

Shaded Relief Model

The area that I have selected is the western part of the Inland Empire in southern California. The region is blanketed my many mountain ranges. Hence, I felt it would be interesting to create the Digital Elevation model of this region. Furthermore, the extent date is as follows:

Left: -118.052

Right: -117.173

Top: 34.383

Bottom: 33.782

Lastly, the geographic coordinate system is North American 1983.

Map Projections

In today's world, it is common knowledge that the world is spherical. To represent the spherical world on a two dimensional surface takes some mathematical rendering. The process of rendering the three dimensional world on to a two dimensional surface is called a map projection. As one may expect, there are multiple ways to project the sphere. Each method has its own benefits and failures. In general, map projections will always introduce a distortion of either distance, shape, area, direction or any combination of these. Consequently, it is important to understand how map projections can benefit us and how they may fail to represent reality.

To begin with, there are many benefits in projecting a map on a two dimensional surface. For one, projecting a conformal map allows directional information to be preserved. This is highly beneficial for GPS and navigational purposes. As for equal area projections, these allow individuals to accurately analyze data that must take into account area. In these types of analysis, equal area projections can prevent errors. Continuously, equidistant map projections keep distant relationships ideal. Thus, these types of projections are ideal when distance relationships are taken into account. Overall, map projections allows individuals to present the three dimensional world in a two dimensional depiction; the type of projection chosen will preserve some aspect of reality that is necessitated by the analysis to be done.

On the contrary, there are pitfalls to map projections. For one, map projections will always distort some aspect of reality. Thereby, there is no perfect map projection that can be used in all spatial representations. In looking at the Mercator conformal map, one can easily identify the enormous distortion in area of Antarctica. As for the cylindrical equal area projection, areas further from the equator become elongated enormously. Another way one can see the distortion between maps is by comparing the distance between Kabul and Washington D.C. These measurements range from 8,100 miles to 13,400 miles. Comparing these values to the true value of approximately 6,900 miles, one can conclude that map projections are by no means perfect. Furthermore, in stating a map is equidistant, one must remember that all points on the map are equidistant from a certain focal point. Between locations in which one point is not the focal point, the distance measured is inaccurate. Similarly, conformal maps preserve direction and angles local to a certain point. As for equal area maps, the area of locations around the focal point are preserved, but away from the point one can see distortions of shape (i.e. Hammer Aitoff Equal Area). Overall, the multitude of distortions introduced in a map projection can cause maps to be useless if focal points are not wisely chosen.

Map projections are useful in the field of geography, but are not perfect. If wisely done, a map projection can be used accurately to display earth and data. At the same time, a map projection can introduce an enormous amount of distortion. Such distortion can be presented in a manner to dramatize depictions of sorts. Thus, it is useful to understand how a map projection can accurately show information or inaccurately distort presented information.