Product Details
The LF Public Events Disturbance and Treatment Polygons Geodatabase is a collection of natural disturbance and land management activities used to determine disturbance causality in LF products and can be used in change detection analysis. LF Public Events Disturbance and Treatment Polygon Geodatabase contains over 2.4 million polygons from 1999-2024 across the United States and U.S. territories.
The Public Events Geodatabase includes contributions from:
- Federal
- State
- Local
- Private Organizations
The LANDFIRE Public Events Disturbance and Treatment Polygons Geodatabase includes a feature dataset for Alaska (AK), CONUS, Hawaii (HI), and the island territories of Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Guam/Northern Mariana (GUCNMI), Palau, and Puerto Rico.
Each feature dataset contains two feature classes, namely Raw Events and Model Ready Events. The Public Raw and Model Ready Event feature classes include disturbance and vegetation/fuel treatment data.
In addition to the feature classes there is also a look up table for the source code, which is an attribute in all feature classes. The source code is a LANDFIRE internal code assigned to each data source. Please consult the Look Up Table link for more information about the data sources included and excluded from this release.
Look Up Table
Certain proprietary and/or sensitive data were removed in this public geodatabase. The lutSource_Code is a table which is an attribute in all three feature classes. Consult the table "lutSource_Code" for more information about the data sources.
The data in the Public Raw Events feature class have been analyzed to eliminate geospatial or information content errors but otherwise represent the full account of acceptable data processed for LANDFIRE. These data may include multiple perimeters for the same event and a high degree of overlap between events within a single calendar year or fiscal year. Examples of the former include the same management activity or disturbance event reported by multiple agencies or individuals. Examples of the latter include locations in which multiple management activities and/or disturbances occurred within the same calendar year or fiscal year.
The data in the Public Raw Events feature class have been analyzed to eliminate geospatial or information content errors but otherwise represent the full account of acceptable data processed for LANDFIRE. These data may include multiple perimeters for the same event and a high degree of overlap between events within a single calendar year or fiscal year. Examples of the former include the same management activity or disturbance event reported by multiple agencies or individuals. Examples of the latter include locations in which multiple management activities and/or disturbances occurred within the same calendar year or fiscal year.
The Public Model Ready Events feature class has been reduced to only one unique event per calendar year per location for data from 1999-2020 and one unique event per fiscal year per location for data from 2021-2024. To produce the Model Ready layer, a series of topologies were created with the Raw Events data to identify areas of overlap between polygons within the same calendar or fiscal year.
A standard hierarchy of LANDFIRE event types was applied to correct the topology errors. For more specifics on the rankings download the LANDFIRE_Public_Events_README.pdf and review Appendix B.
Appendix B
LANDFIRE Event Type Nomenclature and Hierarchy
Event Types at the top of this list are highest ranked events thus having the greatest impact on vegetation/fuel composition
Hierarchy for data from 1999-2023
| LANDFIRE Event Type |
|---|
| Development |
| Clearcut |
| Harvest |
| Thinning |
| Mastication |
| Other Mechanical |
| Wildfire |
| Wildland Fire Use |
| Prescribed Fire |
| Wildland Fire |
| Weather |
| Insecticide |
| Chemical |
| Insects |
| Disease |
| Insects/Disease |
| Herbicide |
| Biological |
| Planting |
| Reforestation |
| Seeding |
Hierarchy for data from 2024
| LANDFIRE Event Type |
|---|
| Development |
| Clearcut |
| Harvest |
| Thinning |
| Mastication |
| Mechanical Add |
| Mechanical Remove |
| Mechanical Unknown |
| Wildfire |
| Wildland Fire Use |
| Prescribed Fire |
| Weather |
| Insecticide |
| Chemical |
| Insects |
| Disease |
| Insects/Disease |
| Herbicide |
| Biological |
| Planting |
| Reforestation |
| Seeding |
A selected perimeter may not necessarily be from a public data set so the Public Model Ready Events feature class may be missing information on events that appear in the Public Raw Events feature class. The result is a layer which contains only one event per calendar year for a location for data from 1999-2020. Data from 2021-2024 contains only one event per fiscal year for a location. Point derived polygons and polygons that were <0.02 acres are also removed from the Public Model Ready Events
The Public Model Ready Events feature class has been reduced to only one unique event per calendar year per location for data from 1999-2020 and one unique event per fiscal year per location for data from 2021-2024. To produce the Model Ready layer, a series of topologies were created with the Raw Events data to identify areas of overlap between polygons within the same calendar or fiscal year.
A standard hierarchy of LANDFIRE event types was applied to correct the topology errors. For more specifics on the rankings download the LANDFIRE_Public_Events_README.pdf and review Appendix B.
Appendix B
LANDFIRE Event Type Nomenclature and Hierarchy
Event Types at the top of this list are highest ranked events thus having the greatest impact on vegetation/fuel composition
Hierarchy for data from 1999-2023
| LANDFIRE Event Type |
|---|
| Development |
| Clearcut |
| Harvest |
| Thinning |
| Mastication |
| Other Mechanical |
| Wildfire |
| Wildland Fire Use |
| Prescribed Fire |
| Wildland Fire |
| Weather |
| Insecticide |
| Chemical |
| Insects |
| Disease |
| Insects/Disease |
| Herbicide |
| Biological |
| Planting |
| Reforestation |
| Seeding |
Hierarchy for data from 2024
| LANDFIRE Event Type |
|---|
| Development |
| Clearcut |
| Harvest |
| Thinning |
| Mastication |
| Mechanical Add |
| Mechanical Remove |
| Mechanical Unknown |
| Wildfire |
| Wildland Fire Use |
| Prescribed Fire |
| Weather |
| Insecticide |
| Chemical |
| Insects |
| Disease |
| Insects/Disease |
| Herbicide |
| Biological |
| Planting |
| Reforestation |
| Seeding |
A selected perimeter may not necessarily be from a public data set so the Public Model Ready Events feature class may be missing information on events that appear in the Public Raw Events feature class. The result is a layer which contains only one event per calendar year for a location for data from 1999-2020. Data from 2021-2024 contains only one event per fiscal year for a location. Point derived polygons and polygons that were <0.02 acres are also removed from the Public Model Ready Events
Improvements
LANDFIRE is no longer producing the exotics polygon layer, and it is no longer included in the Public Events Disturbance and Treatment Polygons Geodatabase. You can still access the LF 2023 Exotics polygon data which includes Exotics data from 1999-2023 on the LF Map Viewer.
Beginning with the LF 2022 Update, LANDFIRE started re-collecting disturbance and treatment polygons June 1 each year from online National data sources. These sources include Forest Service Activity Tracking System (FACTS), National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), USFS National Insect and Disease Risk Map (NIDRM), and Interior Fuels and Post-Fire Reporting System (IFPRS). Updated data is pulled from these sources and any new treatments or disturbances are added. For LF 2022, LANDFIRE added 6.5 million acres of disturbance and treatment polygon events data to the LF Public Raw Events product upon re-collection. For a grand total of ~28 million acres of Raw Events data featured within the LF 2022 Update.
Disturbance Data Processing - learn how LF evaluates and processes the Public Events Geodatabase
Disturbance Data Processing - learn how LF evaluates and processes the Public Events Geodatabase
Brenda Lundberg
LANDFIRE Reference Data Administrator
blundberg@contractor.usgs.gov
Brenda Lundberg
LANDFIRE Reference Data Administrator
blundberg@contractor.usgs.gov