The New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) has engaged Spatial Vision to enhance its existing Fire Tools – a custom-developed tool for use in ArcGIS Desktop – to create Fire Tools II.
FireTools enables OEH to analyse the condition of landscape with respect to fire, taking into consideration known history, broad fire-related vegetation types and fire management zone layers. The ability to conduct fire landscape condition analysis is required by fire managers to prepare Reserve Fire Management Strategies. It is also used internally to measure appropriate fire management performance with regards to risk mitigation and biodiversity.
Fire Tools II takes advantage of the geoprocessing capabilities afforded within ArcGIS Desktop, using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst functions and processing for undertaking sophisticate fire analyses. For example, users are able to use the tools to determine the burn status of landscape, based on a range of parameters including burn history and vegetation condition.
Additionally, FireTools Stage II project is to develop additional functionality via custom ‘tools’ that will further assist fire planners with monitoring and reporting on fire management performance. The refinements being delivered include updated software, allowing functionality in ArcGIS 10.x.
Fire Tools was first developed for the Department in 2009 by Spatial Vision. The enhancements in Fire Tools II will enhance the agency’s capacity to undertake more refined analysis for fire planning and preparedness for fire seasons.
