Wildfire Hazard Potential for the United States (270-m), version 2023: 4th edition

This dataset is the 2023 version of wildfire hazard potential (WHP) for the United States. The files included in this data publication represent an update to any previous versions of WHP or wildland fire potential (WFP) published by the USDA Forest Service. WHP is an index that quantifies the relative potential for high-intensity wildfire that may be difficult to manage, used as a measure to help prioritize where fuel treatments may be needed. This 2023 version of WHP was created from updated national wildfire hazard datasets of annual burn probability and fire intensity generated by the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station with the large fire simulation system (FSim). Vegetation and wildland fuels data from LANDFIRE 2020 (version 2.2.0) were the primary inputs to the updated FSim modeling work and therefore form the foundation for this version of the WHP. As such, the data presented here reflect landscape conditions as of the end of 2020. LANDFIRE 2020 vegetation and fuels data were also used directly in the WHP mapping process, along with updated point locations of fire occurrence ca. 1992-2020. With these datasets as inputs, we produced an index of WHP for all of the conterminous United States at 270-meter resolution. We present the final WHP map in two forms: 1) continuous integer values, and 2) five WHP classes of very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. On its own, WHP is not an explicit map of wildfire threat or risk, but when paired with spatial data depicting highly valued resources and assets such as structures or powerlines, it can approximate relative wildfire risk to those specific resources and assets. WHP is also not a forecast or wildfire outlook for any particular season, as it does not include any information on current or forecasted weather or fuel moisture conditions. It is instead intended for long-term strategic fuels management.
Federal wildfire managers often want to know, over large landscapes, where wildfires are likely to occur and how intense they may be. To meet this need we developed a map that we call wildfire hazard potential (WHP) - a raster geospatial product that can help to inform evaluations of wildfire risk or prioritization of fuels management needs across very large spatial scales (millions of acres). Our specific objective with the WHP map was to depict the relative potential for wildfire that would be difficult for suppression resources to contain.
This data publication is a fourth edition, which was published on 12/21/2023. Previous versions of this publication prior to 2014 were known as Wildland Fire Potential (WFP). These new data represent an update to all previous versions of WHP or WFP published by the USDA Forest Service. On 07/17/2024 this data package was updated to correct a data processing error that caused a very small number of pixels to be Nodata in the initial classified version that should have been Very High WHP. This update also included the addition of summaries tables by management jurisdictions. To check for the latest version of the WHP geospatial data and map graphics, as well as documentation on the mapping process, see: https://www.firelab.org/project/wildfire-hazard- potential. Details about the Wildfire Hazard Potential mapping process can be found in Dillon et al. (2015). Steps described in this paper about weighting for crown fire potential were dropped in the 2018 and subsequent versions due to changes to the FSim modeling products used as the primary inputs to WHP mapping. Specific versions of the national wildfire hazard data simulated with FSim, LANDFIRE datasets, and fire occurrence data are listed in the Data Quality Information section of this document.