Lab 7

In this lab, we worked in obtaining data for some of the LA county fires that occurred in the month of 2009. All the data was collected from the resources below. Some of the resources actually had files that could be downloaded on ArcGIS so that it fits on the same LA county map. I took several parameters which I thought were important for the effects this fire could have on the environment and to the people. I included the populated places, the urban area, the airports, and the parks. I also included the fire extension on different dates.

I included the populated place because a big fire could have an important effect on people. A fire like this could make the people leave the area because it could create a lot of problems. For the people that live in the area where the fire occurred, it could easily endanger their lives. Then, I also had an interest on the urban area because with this fire, it could easily damage a lot of the urban landscape which is probably the most important area for anyone. Then, the airports. I plotted the airports for 2 reasons: the first one is to know if the planes were possible sources for those fires and the second is are the fire in proximity to the airports? The effects could be disastrous. Then, the parks. I included them because a lot of people spend their leisure time at parks so this is to see the effects on the environment.

I felt the fire extension was a very important point for this map. I feel this is very important because of the evolution the fire has within a span of a few days. We can see that at the end of August, the fire is relatively small. However we can see that a few days later at the beginning of September, the fire perimeter has dramatically increased which can have disastrous effects on the environment.

To be more precise, I took some data from the LA times. On August 31st, 2 firefighters got killed and 85000 acres got destroyed overnight. 18 homes were lost during that night and plenty of neighborhoods had to be evacuated. More than 12000 homes were threatened and 6000 had to be evacuated. The consequences of this fire last summer were absolutely dramatic. This is why the LA fire department has taken measures and create a wildfire action fire plan in case a fire like this occurs again.

As we all know, the consequences of a fire can have absolutely devastating consequences for the people and the environment we live in. However, by taking measures, less damages could be produced. Using ArcGIS, we have a good estimation of what the consequences of a fire can be by looking at its progress over several days. Using the data collected from the internet, we see what gets affected because of those fires.

Resources:

Title: LA County Enterprise GIS

Website: http://gis.lacounty.gov/eGIS/?cat=11

Title: California Department of Forestry and Fire protection

Website: http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/

Title: UCLA's spatial data repository

Website: http://gis.ats.ucla.edu/Mapshare/

Title: L.A. County fire doubles in size; more homes destroyed; Mt. Wilson threatened [Updated]

Website: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/la-county-fire-doubles-in-size-more-homes-list-mt-wilson-threatened.html

Title: Ready! Set! Go!

Website: http://www.fire.lacounty.gov/SafetyPreparedness/readysetgo/home.asp