This README.txt file was generated on 2023-05-03 by AQUAFIRE
Abstract: Climatic events such as drought and wildfires have become more frequent and severe in California, causing structural and ecological damage. While there is an understanding of both freshwater resource management and wildfires, there has been little work directed towards integrating groundwater data into wildfire risk models. To fill this knowledge gap, we will analyze wildfire history and severity in groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) in California. In particular, we will use statewide publicly-available geospatial data of groundwater and wildfire datasets to analyze and interpret the effect that groundwater levels have on fire hazard models. Our approach will rely on existing wildfire data, including wildfire risk assessments and a database of burn perimeters, coupled with freshwater data, including mapped groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) and groundwater level measurements, to conduct several spatial analyses and data products. We will produce an open-source interactive ShinyApp that will visualize how groundwater availability affects wildfire risk models.
Author Information:
Jillian Allison (jilliannallison@bren.ucsb.edu)
Meagan Brown (meagan_brown@bren.ucsb.edu)
Andre Dextre (adextre@ucsb.edu)
Wade Sedgwick (wsedgwick@ucsb.edu)
Client Information:
Kelly Easterday
The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
kelly.easterday@tnc.org
Faculty Advisor:
Max Moritz
UC Santa Barbara, Bren School of Environmental Science & Management
mmoritz@bren.ucsb.edu
Date of data collection: The data used for this project and analysis was collected approximately between 2023-01-15 - 2023-03-15
Geographic location of data collection: Data for this project was collected for the State of California
No external funding was needed for data collection for this project
Licenses/restrictions: There are no restrictions or licenses required to access the data used for this project.
Links to publications that cite or use the data:
California Fire Perimeters (all): https://gis.data.cnra.ca.gov/datasets/CALFIRE-Forestry::california-fire-perimeters-all-1/explore?location=38.742598%2C-120.133468%2C6.82
GDE Pulse (TNC): https://gde.codefornature.org/#/data
California' Ecoregions: https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregion-download-files-state-region-9
Recommended citation for the project:
Allison, J. Brown, M. Dextre, A. Easterday, K. Moritz, M. Sedgwick, W. (2023) Assessing Fire in Groundwater-Dependent Ecosystems. https://github.com/gw-wildfire/aquafire.
California Wildfire Perimeters (All): Data obtained through CAL FIRE Wildfire Perimeters and Prescribed Burns dataset. The service includes layers that are data subsets symbolized by size and year.
Natural Communities Commonly Associated with Groundwater Version 2.0 (NCCAG 2.0): Data obtained through The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) GDE Pulse Dashboard. Represents areas in California deemed most likely to be GDEs according to criteria described in Klausmeyer et al., 2018.
Ecoregions of California (Level III): Data obtained through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Dataset includes name, area, longitude, and latitude of California's 13 ecoregions.
California County Boundaries: : Data obtained through California's Open Data portal. Dataset containes California country information such as name, longitute, latitude, and shape (area).
There are two versions of the California Ecoregion available. For this project, we used Level 3 (Level III) of California's ecoregion dataset which cointains 13 ecoregions within California. Additionally, for GDE data we used the Natural Communities Commonly Associated with Groundwater Version 2.0 (NCCAG 2.0) dataset. All other dataset only have ne version.
All raw data used for this analysis was obtained through publicly open data sources
Description of methods used for collection/generation of data:
California Wildfire Perimeters (All): The CA wildfire perimeters dataset was accessed through CA’s Natural Resources Agency GIS Dashboard. Original raw data was obtained by CAL-FIRE, USDA Forest Service, and other Federal Partners.
CA Natural Resources Agency Dashboard: https://gis.data.cnra.ca.gov/datasets/CALFIRE-Forestry::california-fire-perimeters-all-1/explore?location=36.961169%2C-117.954466%2C6.00&showTable=true
Natural Communities Commonly Associated with Groundwater Version 2.0 (NCCAG 2.0): Data obtained through The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) NCCAG Dashboard. Data was collected from Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) reported by Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) established through the CA Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).
For more information on the methodology of this dataset: https://gis.water.ca.gov/app/NCDatasetViewer/sitedocs/#
NCCAG Dashboard: https://gde.codefornature.org/#/methodology
Ecoregions of California (Level III): Data was accessed and downloaded through the EPA’s Eco-Research website.
For more information on EPA’s data collection: https://gaftp.epa.gov/EPADataCommons/ORD/Ecoregions/ca/ca_eco_l3.htm
California County Boundaries: Data was accessed through California's Open Data Portal. Original raw data was obtained from the US Census Bureau's 2016 MAF/TIGER database.
Source: https://data.ca.gov/dataset/ca-geographic-boundaries
California Wildfire Perimeters (All), wildfire_perimeters
Janitor package was used to convert data column names to snake case Transformed data to NAD83 / California Albers - EPSG:3310 Created a column called ‘val’ with a value of 1 to assign each fire a value Filtered for years 1950 or after Cropped fires to only the California state boundary
Natural Communities Commonly Associated with Groundwater (NCCAG Dataset), gde
Transformed data to NAD83 / California Albers - EPSG:3310 Created a column called ‘gde’ with a value of 1 to assign each gde a value
Ecoregions of California (Level III), ca_eco_l3
Janitor package was used to convert data column names to snake case Transformed data to NAD83 / California Albers - EPSG:3310 Renamed ‘us_l3name’ column to ‘region’
California County Boundaries, CA_Counties
Janitor package was used to convert data column names to snake case Transformed data to NAD83 / California Albers - EPSG:3310
Software: R/Rstudio Version 4.2.2
Packages: tidyverse, sf, here, janitor, raster, rgdal, fasterize, terra
The standard coordinate reference system used for our spatial data was NAD83 / California Albers - EPSG:3310. We also used a 30 x 30 meter resolution for raster layers as a standard.
-
Data profiling: Analyzed the data to understand its structure, content, relationships, and quality issues. This involved assessing data distributions, value frequencies, missing values, and outlier detection.
-
Data cleansing: Made sure datasets were tidy and were projected in the same coordinate reference system.
-
Data lineage and traceability: Documented the sources, transformations, and dependencies of data throughout its lifecycle to ensure accountability, and transparency.
-
Metadata management: Captured, stored, and managed metadata (data about data) to ensure data consistency, discoverability, and usability.
Jillian Allison (jilliannallison@bren.ucsb.edu)
Meagan Brown (meagan_brown@bren.ucsb.edu)
Andre Dextre (adextre@ucsb.edu)
Wade Sedgwick (wsedgwick@ucsb.edu)
[California Wildfire Perimeters (All)]
Number of variables: 22
Number of cases/rows: 16,446
Variable List:
Objectid: unique identifier for each fire occurrence
Year: year that fire occurred in
State: State that fire occurred in
Agency: Reporting agency of fire
Unit_id: Reporting unit
Fire_name: Common name of fire
Inc_num: Incident number
Alarm_date: Date that fire was reported
Cont_date: Containment date
Cause: Code for cause of fire
Comments: User comments
Report_ac: reported acres burned
Gis_acres: acres burned according to GIS
Fire_num: Fire number
Complex_na: Fire complex name\
Complex_in: Complex identification number
Shape_leng: Shape length of fire perimeter
Shape_area: shape area of fire perimeter
Geometry: Spatial outline of fire, polygon
Missing data codes: “NA”, 0000000, empty
Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: NA
[GDE]
Number of variables: 13
Number of cases/rows: 591,217
Variable List:
POLYGON_ID: Unique identifier for each GDE
WETLAND_NA: Description of GDE, wetland, or spring
ORIGINAL_C: Code or name for GDE
SOURCE_COD: Code for source
DATE_DATA_: Year the imagery was taken for mapping this wetland type
COMMENTS: User provided comments
LAST_MODIF: Date record was last modified
MODIFIED_B: The person who modified the data
VEGETATION: Vegetation type in wetland
DOMINANT_S: Dominant species in the wetland
Geometry: Spatial outline of GDE
Missing data codes: “NA”
Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: NA
[Ecoregions of California (Level III)]
Number of variables: 14
Number of cases/rows: 13
Variable List:
Us_l3code: United States Level 3 Ecoregion Code
Region: United States Ecoregion Name
Na_l3: North American Level 3 Ecoregion Code
Na_l3name: North American Level 3 Ecoregion Name
Na_l2code: North American Level 2 Ecoregion Code
Na_l2name: North American Level 2 Ecoregion Name
Na_l1code: North American Level 1 Ecoregion Code
Na_l2name: North American Level 1 Ecoregion Name
State_name: State Name
Epa_region: EPA Region
L3_key: Level 3 Key (Ecoregion number and name)
L2_key: Level 2 Key (Ecoregion number and name)
L1_key: Level 1 Key (Ecoregion number and name)
Geometry: Spatial outline of ecoregion
Missing data codes: No missing data
Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: NA
[California County Boundaries]
Number of variables: 18
Number of cases/rows: 58
Variable List:
statefp: State FIP ID
countyfp: County FIP ID
name: Name of CA county
intptlat: Latitude
intptlon: Longitude
geomtry: Spatial outline of county\
Missing data codes: No missing data
Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: NA