Vegetation

Change to LF Remap fuels for disturbed areas represents effective year 2019.

Reason for alert: Users of existing LANDFIRE (LF) fuel products need to be aware of a change in the products being released as part of Remap.

LF version(s): LF Remap (LF 2.0.0)

Updated product(s) or information: Areas mapped as disturbed by LF have been adjusted to account for vegetation conditions relative to Time Since Disturbance (TSD) for the 2019 effective year (accounting for disturbances between 2009 - 2016). This adjustment has been made to the following LF Remap products:

13 Anderson Fire Behavior Fuel Models (FBFM13)
40 Scott and Burgan Fire Behavior Fuel Models (FBFM40)
Forest Canopy Cover (CC)
Forest Canopy Height (CH)
Forest Canopy Bulk Density (CBD)
Forest Canopy Base Height (CBH)
Fuel Vegetation Type (FVT)
Fuel Vegetation Cover (FVC)
Fuel Vegetation Height (FVH)
Fuel Disturbance (FDist)
Historical Disturbance (HDist)

Problem or issue description: The significant refinement for the LF Remap products mentioned above, is that they represent "capable" fuels, meaning the TSD assignments have been calculated using an effective year. For example, LF Remap fuels are now assigned for the 2019 effective year. The new process considers all incorporated disturbances in LF Remap and provides an adjustment factor to account for the TSD, making the data "capable" of representing an effective year. These capable data account for increase or decrease in fuel attributes in disturbed areas to the effective year (2019 in this case).

Given that LF Remap is circa 2016 data, it is important to note that no new disturbances are added for 2017 through 2018. Although these new disturbance data are not available yet, they are being catalogued for future use in an Update. Disturbances older than 10 years in 2019 follow the existing LF protocol for removal from Fuel Disturbance and are represented by more recent non-disturbed LF Remap vegetation. For areas that have not been disturbed, fuel is based on LF Remap vegetation, which is the newest fuel vegetation available.

The objective for this change was to improve, clarify, and simplify fuel transitions and Fuel attribute change following disturbances. By synchronizing TSDs, users may not need to do much, if any adjustments, to the vegetation and fuel conditions to represent contemporary conditions. In addition, these refinements will improve performance of fire behavior modeling when using the data operationally. Starting with the Southwest GeoArea release (which includes Northwest GeoArea fuel products), LF Remap fuels will be delivered as capable fuels for the 2019 effective year.

The LF team stands ready to assist with questions and concerns regarding LF products. Contact us at the LF helpdesk.

LANDFIRE 2001, 2008, 2010, 2012 (LF 1.0.5, LF 1.10, LF 1.2.0, LF 1.3.0) BPS and SCLASS for the Alaska GeoArea were updated 06/09/2017 due to a processing error. The error resulted in overmapping nodata (value -9999) along mapping zone boundaries.

Users are advised to delete local copies of this layer downloaded prior to 06/09/2017 and download the updated version. Biophysical Settings
Succession Classes

LANDFIRE 2012 (LF_1.3.0) layers for the Northwest (NW) GeoArea were updated 4/9/2015 with corrected input layers. Updated layers include:
Existing Vegetation Type (EVT)
Existing Vegetation Height (EVH)
Existing Vegetation Cover (EVC)
Canopy Bulk Density (CBD)
Canopy Base Height (CBH)
Canopy Cover (CC)
Canopy Height (CH)
Fire Behavior Fuel Models 13/40 (FBFM13/40)
Disturbance 2012 (D2012)
Fuel Disturbance 2012 (FDIST2012)
Vegetation Disturbance 2012 (VDIST2012)
Vegetation Transition Magnitude (VTM2012)

Users are advised to download the updated versions and delete local copies of these layers that were downloaded prior to April 8, 2015. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

LANDFIRE 2008 (LF_1.1.0) existing vegetation layers for zones 10, 19, 41, 37, 46, 48, 54, 98, and 99 are updated 5/1/12. The existing vegetation layers were updated due to corrected input layers. Updated layers are Existing Vegetation Type (EVT), Existing Vegetation Height (EVH), and Existing Vegetation Cover (EVC).

Users are advised to delete local copies of these layers downloaded prior to May 1, 2012 and download the updated versions. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

Biophysical Settings (BPS) versions 1.0.5/1.1.0 (LF 2001/2008) for the Southeast (SE) GeoArea are updated as of 1/30/12. LF 1.0.5/1.1.0 was delivered incrementally over the course of a year beginning in April 2010 with the SE GeoArea (zones 37, 46, 48, 54, 55, 56, 98, and 99). Remaining GeoAreas were completed over the course of the next eighteen months and methods for completing these data were refined, including improved agricultural, urban, and riparian/wetland mapping. LANDFIRE has now implemented these refinements in the SE GeoArea.

Users are advised to delete local copies of the BPS layer for the SE GeoArea LF 1.0.5/1.1.0 downloaded prior to 1/30/12 and download the updated versions. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

Vegetation layers for the Southeast (SE) GeoArea versions 1.0.5/1.1.0 (LF 2001/2008) are updated as of 12-20-11. LF 1.0.5/1.1.0 was delivered incrementally over the course of a year beginning in April 2010 with the SE GeoArea (zones 37, 46, 48, 54, 55, 56, 98, and 99). Remaining GeoAreas were completed over the course of the next eighteen months. Methods for completing these data were refined, including improved agricultural, urban, and riparian/wetland mapping. LANDFIRE implemented these refinements in the SE GeoArea.

The updated LF 1.0.5/1.1.0 vegetation layers for the SE GeoArea include:

Users are advised to delete local copies of these SE GeoArea LF 1.0.5/1.1.0 layers downloaded prior to 12-20-11 and download the updated versions. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

A problem with LF_1.1.0 (LF 2008) zones 1 - 25, 28 - 31, 39 -41 was recently identified. Areas in mechanical disturbances were misclassified. Affected layers include: Existing Vegetation Cover, Existing Vegetation Height, and Existing Vegetation Type. While the affected acreage varies depending on the amount of mechanical disturbance found in any given zone, users are advised to delete any local copies of these layers downloaded prior to May 12, 2011 and download the current versions. We regret any inconvenience this may cause. Expanded explanation concerning this Vegetation Transition Error.

Revisions were recently made to the Existing Vegetation Cover, Existing Vegetation Height, and Existing Vegetation Type layers for mapping zones 70, 71, and 75. Users are advised to delete any local copies of these three layers downloaded prior to 03/31/09 and download the current versions. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.

The Environmental Site Potential layer for mapping zones 15, 18, and 28 was updated October 20, 2008. Users are encouraged to use this updated version of the fuel suite.

A minor problem was recently identified with the Biophysical Settings layer for Mapping Zone 44. Users are advised to delete any local copies of this layer downloaded prior to October 20, 2008 and download the current version. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.

Relative age was not set correctly in the VDDT models in the following eastern zones when they were first made available for download from www.landfire.gov: 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 33, 34, 37, 44, 45, 55, 56, 58, and 98. Relative age, according to LANDFIRE modeling rules, should be set to the inverse of the end age of the class (for example, if the class end age is 10 and relative age is used, it should be set to -10). In the aforementioned zones, relative age was set to the class end age rather than the inverse of the class end age. In some cases, an incorrect relative age setting could change the model results. The LANDFIRE team has corrected the relative age issue and redelivered corrected files. For zone 25 a new version of the model description document was released to correct inaccurate descriptive information related to this issue. For all other zones, only the VDDT database was changed. The error in the relative age setting did not affect any of the mapped products. Customers are advised to delete any local version 1 databases (that is, those that have "v1" in the file name) they may have downloaded and replace them with the version 2 databases (those that have "v2" in the file name) currently available from the LANDFIRE website.

A minor problem was recently identified with the Aspect, Elevation, Slope, Existing Vegetation Cover, Existing Vegetation Height, and Existing Vegetation Type layers for mapping zone 37. While affected acreage is very small, users are advised to delete any local copies of these six layers downloaded prior to September 6, 2007 and download the updated versions as of September 18, 2007. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.