Final Lab: Station Fire (Wk. 9)

Today's lab, Lab #8, is the capstone lab in this course. After learning the basics of maps and GIS for the past quarter, this lab test our knowledge and demonstrate the culmination of our GIS prowess. This week's goal, first and foremost, is to analyze the Summer 2009 Station Fire in Los Angeles County. In addition, we are to expand our knowledge about map-making in ArcGIS, and Southern California geography and wildfires. In fulfilling said objectives, we created both reference and thematic maps.

The Los Angeles Station Fire started on August 26th 2009 and burned for a month. It spread very quickly and was an immense challenge for firefighters to contain. Several days after the fire started, officials decided that all evidence pointed to the cause of the fire being arson. The arsonist has not been found to this day.

The first map I created was a reference map. One of the reasons the fire spread so quickly and was so difficult to fight was the terrain in area. This map displays Los Angeles county as well as the interstates and bodies of water within the county lines. This helps the viewer visually see what major traffic arteries the fire came close to. More importantly, however, the map shows the Station Fire perimeter over the course of a few days. The fire spread very rapidly and this is evident in Figure 1. A DEM was also layered onto the county map to show the kinds of terrain the fire encompassed and what firefighters had to deal with while trying to extinguish it. The fire was mostly in a higher-elevation, mountainous area, indicated by the lighter colors. The fire spread primarily North and West along the hills.

Figure 1 - Station Fire Reference Map

 The next two maps are thematic and present even more information on the fire. In Figure 2, I wanted to focus on a topic that hits close to home for many people. My first thematic map shows the distribution of schools around the changing Station Fire perimeter. The youth are the most cherished group in our society and we worry about them. Had the fire burned any schools or school children it wold have been a tragedy. The data on schools was found on the UCLA GIS database. To create this map, I put the Schools layer on top of all the other layers so that I could see any schools that were within the fire perimeter. Thankfully, through my map, we can conclude that although the fire came dangerously close to some schools, none seem to have been engulfed by it. There were likely several evacuations but few if any causalities. I would like to commend our firefighters in minimizing the danger to our schools and students. 

Figure 2 - Station Fire Thematic Map: Schools

My final map shows the movement of the fire but this time it is super-imposed on a Fuel Rank layer. Fuel Rank, as noted on the map, is a ranking system of fire potential based on the type of vegetation in the area and the topography. The ranking system ranges from 1 to 4. For my map, I translated this numeric system to a more descriptive ordinal arrangement. A rank of 1 corresponds to "Low Fuel Rank" and a rank of 4 corresponds to "Very High Fuel Rank." Based on my map, it seems that the Station Fire existed mostly in Very High Fuel Rank areas.

Figure 3 - Station Fire Thematic Map: Fuel Rank

Overall, Lab 8 achieved its objectives. Although I attended UCLA in 2009, I was not in Los Angeles during the summer, so I knew very little about the Station Fire. It was a huge deal and I am glad I am now much more educated on the topic. Additionally, I improved my skills working with Legends and various layers in ArcGIS, and am now very comfortable handling DEMs. I also demonstrated my understanding of reference and thematic maps and cartography. Throughout the course of this class, I have really begun to see the power of GIS. It is no wonder that companies pay millions of dollars for this type of data. I am glad I took this course as I believe I have added a valuable tool to my skillset.







Bibliography:


"Mapshare: UCLA's Spatial Data Repository." GIS at UCLA: Mapshare DB. University of California, 2006, Web. 01 Dec. 2012. <http://gis.ats.ucla.edu//Mapshare/Default.cfm>.


Winton, Richard. "L.A. NOW." Substance Found near Station Fire Ignition Point Is Key Evidence in Arson Probe [Updated]. Los Angeles Times, 04 Sept. 2009. Web. 01 Dec. 2012. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/station-fire-ignition-arson-investigation.html>.



“Station Fire News Release.” InciWeb: Incident Information System. 31 August 2009.Web. 01 Dec. 2012. <http://inciweb.org/incident/article/9640/>



“All Station Fire Perimeters.” Los Angeles County Enterprise GIS. 28 September 2010. Web. 01 Dec. 2012.<http://egis3.lacounty.gov/egis>



“Fuel Rank.” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection: FRAP. 2007. Web. 01 Dec. 2012.<http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/data/frapgisdata/download.asp?rec=frnk>