LandFire is looking for field data! Add yours now.

I wanted to send out a friendly reminder that the data submission deadline for the current data call is March 31, 2016.  Data submitted before March 31 are evaluated for inclusion in the appropriate update cycle, and submissions after March 31 are typically considered in subsequent updates.  

This is the last call for vegetation/fuel plot data that can be used for the upcoming LANDFIRE Remap. If you have any plot data you would like to contribute please submit the data by March 31 in order to guarantee the data will be evaluated for inclusion in the LF2015 Remap. LANDFIRE is also accepting contributions of polygon data from 2015/2016 for disturbance and treatment activities. Please see the attached data call letter for more information.

Brenda Lundberg, Senior Scientist

Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies (SGT, Inc.)

Contractor to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

Earth Resources Observation & Science (EROS) Center

Phone: 406.329.3405

Email: blundberg@usgs.gov

Plague Mapping!

Workshop: create maps for Ebola's first responders

Workshop: HOW TO CREATE MAPS FOR EBOLA's FIRST RESPONDERS which are used by Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, WHO and others. The workshop quickly shows how to easily use a humanitarian mapping freeware so anyone can contribute to this global mapping collaboration.

Easy‐to‐Learn and Then Map on Your Own Time

Volunteer now! Join contributors world‐wide and help create the maps which are being used in the fight against Ebola. Easy to make, these maps are for first responders including the World Health Organization, Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and others.

Come and Learn how to map rooftops in cities and the paths and roadways to remote villages using Open Street Map and satellite images. First responders need your help today.

• You’ll learn about this global collaboration

• You’ll see how to use OpenStreetMap’s humanitarian mapping freeware which is quickly becoming the communication tool used by international first

  responders

• And, you can share your ideas on how you can participate in this collaborative effort.

D‐LAB (356 Barrows Hall)

Thursday, October 30th, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Friday, October 31st, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Register:  http://dlab.berkeley.edu/training

That was a long, rolling quake

From Live EarthquakesWe felt the 6.0 quake here in Berkeley as a long, rolling, continual shimmy. Up in Napa it was considerably more than that. Lots of news about lost wine etc. There have been a number of small aftershocks since 3am, we haven't felt them here, but Napa valley is jumping this morning.

VGI or micro-mapping for response to Philippine’s typhoon disaster

urgent needs from the Philippines, from tweets and images

YolandaPH is a ESRI-based mapping platform for post-disaster response in the Philippines. Snapshot above.

These maps were produced using a selection of photos from Twitter, Facebook, news articles, and other websites curated using the MicroMapper platform. The locations are approximate and more photos and information are currently being mapped and categorized by the GIS Corps. 

Hundreds of digital humanitarian volunteers worldwide, including media monitors, translators, GIS specialists, statistical analysts, emotional support teams, and standby task forces, are working around the clock with rescue and recovery efforts, particularly in the hard-hit eastern city of Tacloban.

"DHN is sorting through very high volumes of social media information,” said Sara Jane Terp, a DHN volunteer with the Standby Volunteer Task Force.

Approximately 182,000 tweets have been collected and automatically filtered down to 35,715 based on relevance and uniqueness, according to Carden.

Volunteers use triangulation (comparing information against two other sources, such as traditional media and official government reports) to verify information. The time-consuming work is made easier because of the large number of volunteers working in different time zones.

Useful slideshow of the workflow is found here.

from: http://www.irinnews.org/report/99102/micro-mapping-philippine-s-typhoon-disaster

UPDATE: Nice round-up of disaster response from flying sheep here.

How does the USFS map vegetation post fires?

The discussion of how the USFS deals with fires on public forests came up strongly in our recent SNAMP Public Meeting. Our Last Change field site burned in October, and we are very interested in understanding the behavior and impact of the American fire. Part of the discussion stemmed from this presentation on preliminary estimates for fire intensity, ascertained partly from analysis of WorldView imagery delivered at our SNAMP meeting. For more on the SNAMP presentation, check out our website.

The website (linked below) offers an initial description of post-fire vegetative conditions using the Rapid Assessment of Vegetation Condition after Wildfire (RAVG) process. RAVG analysis looks at fires that burn more than 1,000 acres of forested National Forest System (NFS) lands, beginning with fires that occurred in 2007. These fires result in direct losses of vegetative cover and many of the benefits associated with forested ecosystems.

NFS lands experience thousands of wildfires every year, most of which are relatively small. The largest fires typically account for 90% of the total acreage burned. RAVG analysis provides a first approximation of areas that due to severity of the fire may require reforestation treatments. These reforestation treatments would re-establish forest cover and restore associated ecosystem services. This initial approximation could be followed by a site-specific diagnosis and development of a silvicultural prescription identifying reforestation needs.

Some resources:

• Post Fire Vegetation Mapping process that the Forest Service Uses http://www.fs.fed.us/postfirevegcondition/index.shtml.
• Specific to the methodology of the RAVG program can be found at: http://www.fs.fed.us/postfirevegcondition/whatis.shtml.
• Also, here is the Field Guide for Mapping Post-Fire Soil Burn Severity. 

FUEGO — A concept for a fire detection satellite

A nice press release about our new paper on the concepts behind a fire detection satellite with perhaps the coolest acronym yet: FUEGO — Fire Urgency Estimator in Geosynchronous Orbit. From Bob Sanders.

Artist's conception of the FUEGO satellite

Current and planned wildfire detection systems are impressive but lack both sensitivity and rapid response times. A small telescope with modern detectors and significant computing capacity in geosynchronous orbit can detect small (12 m²) fires on the surface of the earth, cover most of the western United States (under conditions of moderately clear skies) every few minutes or so, and attain very good signal-to-noise ratio against Poisson fluctuations in a second. Hence, these favorable statistical significances have initiated a study of how such a satellite could operate and reject the large number of expected systematic false alarms from a number of sources. We suggest a number of algorithms that can help reduce false alarms, and show efficacy on a few. Early detection and response would be of true value in the United States and other nations, as wildland fires continue to severely stress resource managers, policy makers, and the public, particularly in the western US. Here, we propose the framework for a geosynchronous satellite with modern imaging detectors, software, and algorithms able to detect heat from early and small fires, and yield minute-scale detection times. Open Access Journal Link. Press Release. KPIX spot.

Post American fire imagery

Check out these images from after the American fire, from the WorldView 2 satelllite from our northern SNAMP site. The blue boundary is our SNAMP site.  This background imagery is a pan-sharpened WV2 image (0.5 meters, channels 7, 5, 3). The red color depicts alive vegetation (at least for the time being) and green-blue is post-fire NPV (non-photosynthetic veg).  Thanks to Carlos Ramirez for the images.

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 The post-fire imagery shows the heterogeneity of this fire - some spots burned all the vegetation, some spots have standing trees remaining.

San Francisco circa 2072

SF archipelago, c. 2072

Some fun before the semester starts! Like something out of a great scifi novel: from Burrito Justice (and via Mark O.) "March 20th, 2072 (AP), Northern California Association of City States: With the surprising acceleration of sea level rise due to the melting of both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets over the past decade, the San Francisco canal system was officially abandoned this week. Additional ferry service has been announced between the new major islands of the San Franciscan Archipelago while the boring machines make progress under the Van Ness Passage and Richmond Pass for new transit tunnels." This rad poster is available for sale!

Urgent Request - GISCorps is looking for remote sensing specialists for Mega Storm Sandy

GISCorps is looking for remote sensing specialists for Mega Storm Sandy

The project is in collaboration with the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters" (http://www.disasterscharter.org/). The assistance of Remote Sensing Specialists is needed for analyzing imagery in various regions affected by the recent mega storm in the east coast of the United States.

The desired volunteer(s) must have considerable expertise in working with TerraSAR-X (Synthetic Aperture Radar data in the X-band) imagery and conducting analysis related to TerraSAR-X. Some of the desired analysis includes measuring the extent of the flood (pooling of water), depth of water, and conducting change detection from TerraSAR-X taken at various stages of the storm and producing shape files from areas of change. The image datasets will be provided to volunteer(s) by the Charter and from their FTP site.
 
Duration: This project is urgent and work can start immediately; the approximate duration is 1-2 weeks and 3-5 hours a day.
 
Type of mission: this mission does NOT require traveling and is conducted remotely. The volunteer will be using their own hardware and software and will be working closely with Charter's contact person throughout the project via emails, phone, VoIP, IRC and FTP sites.

If interested in applying, please send an email to recruit@giscorps.org along with your latest resume by midnight of November 7th, 2012 (or as soon as possible).  Please reply ONLY if you have TerraSAR-X imagery experience.


Thank you in advance,

GISCorps Recruitment Team