What is ArcFuels?

ArcFuels is an ArcMap toolbar developed to streamline fire behavior modeling and spatial analyses for fuel treatment planning. The macros link: 1) key wildfire behavior models; 2) fuels and vegetation data (e.g. LANDFIRE, FVS databases); 3) MS Office, and 4) ArcGIS.

ArcFuels is used to rapidly design and test fuel treatments at the stand and landscape scale via linkages to models such as FVS-FFE (Forest Vegetation Simulator with the Fire and Fuels Extension), SVS (Stand Visualization System), FARSITE (Fire Area Simulator), FlamMap, Nexus, and FVS (Forest Vegetation Simulator) within a spatial interface. The system was specifically designed to accelerate Fireshed/SPOTS analyses for fuel treatment planning. The ArcMap framework helps specialists leverage local data to address project-specific issues that typify many fuel treatment projects.

ArcFuels macros are executed via custom toolbars in ArcMap. ArcFuels is loaded by simply copying the ArcMap project file and the projects database from the links below. The projects database contains information for each fuel treatment project in an MS Access database.

ArcFuels was programmed in the VBA development environment incorporated into ArcMap. Macros can be customized or added by users having familiarity with VBA macro programming. Extensive macro libraries are available online at ESRI.

Specific functionality of ArcFuels includes: (1) An interactive linkage between digital imager, vegetation, data, FVS-FFE, and SVS, providing a map-based tool for designing, simulating, and visualizing stand fuel treatments, (2) Rapid scale-up of stand-specific treatments to simulate landscape packages of treatment alternatives, (3) Data linkages between FVS outputs and FlamMap to allow for simulation of landscape-scale fire behavior and evaluation of fuel treatment scenarios, and (4) full GIS functionality provided with ArcMap for data manipulation, ancillary analyses, mapping, and other GIS functionality.

Click on each of the figures below to view a larger image:

Western Wildland Environmental
Threat Assessment Center
3160 NE Third St.
Prineville, OR 97754
P (541) 416-6583
F (541) 416-6693
Website: www.fs.fed.us/wwetac/

Updated: April 19, 2013

Contact Information

Nicole Vaillant
Phone: 541-416-6600
Email: nvaillant@fs.fed.us

Alan Ager
Phone: 541-969-8683
Email: aager@fs.fed.us

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