FIRE RISK AND FUEL TREATMENT EFFECTIVENESS FOR THE\ud COMMUNITY OF FOREST RANCH, CALIFORNIA

ThesisRisk assessment models provide guidance for communities to plan and implement\ud changes that could reduce the risk of loss due to wildfire. My thesis utilized\ud fire behavior models to accomplish three objectives: 1) provide an assessment of the\ud current fire risk in the community of Forest Ranch, California; 2) test three techniques\ud for identifying optimum configurations of fuel treatments; and 3) measure the modeled\ud effectiveness of these fuel treatment configurations for reducing fire risk. The first objective\ud of my thesis utilized LANDFIRE?? data, readily available online, to represent\ud the current fuel condition. The data were then entered into a computer-based fire behavior\ud model, FlamMap??, to predict fire behavior in the community of Forest Ranch. This\ud provided a situational awareness that can be used for planning fuel treatments, future\ud development and fire suppression activities. To accomplish the second objective, proposed fuel treatment configurations were assigned using three techniques: 1) common\ud strategic protocols; 2) modeled fire behavior; and 3) hybrid approaches that combine\ud benefits from each of the other two techniques. To accomplish the third objective,\ud the three spatial configurations of fuel treatments were implemented into the fire behavior\ud model, and tested for their effectiveness in reducing fire risk. Pairwise correlations\ud and data distributions were compared for each of the treatment configurations, providing\ud evidence of the benefits of utilizing fire behavior models to assign fuel treatment\ud areas. While the fuel treatment configurations based purely on fire behavior were the\ud most effective, the hybrid approach provided a compromise between cost and benefit.CSU, Chic