RII Track-1: Harnessing the Data Revolution for Fire Science

The frequency and severity of wildfires in the western U.S. has increased over the last forty years, caused by changes in climate, fuel buildup, and invasive species. As a result, wildfires are now the most prevalent type of natural disaster in the southwestern U.S. and are detrimental to human health and ecosystem services (including water availability, visibility, and recreation).

The Harnessing the Data Revolution for Fire Science (HDRFS) project aims to understand the “wildland fire continuum,” the process in which an ecosystem’s pre-fire state (plant community composition, ecology, hydrological state, etc.) determines the level of fuel buildup and thereby helps determine the conditions of the eventual wildfire. Post-fire recovery in turn sets the initial condition for establishing the pre-fire state for the next fire in the cycle.

The HDRFS research and capacity-building program is organized around interconnected elements of the wildland fire continuum and aligned efforts in research computing and data. Along with its research and capacity-building agenda, the HDRFS project includes an ambitious education and workforce development focus aimed at expanding opportunities for Nevadans at the K-12 and community college levels.

HDRFS is administered by the Nevada System for Higher Education in collaboration with the University of Nevada, Reno; the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and the Desert Research Institute. Additional institutions involved include Nevada State College and four community colleges (College of Southern Nevada, Truckee Meadows Community College, Western Nevada College, and Great Basin College).

Harnessing the Data Revolution for Fire Science (HDRFS) will explore the fire continuum of diverse processes interacting across scales in the sagebrush ecosystem. Goals include: 1) improving understanding of fire processes and effects over spatial scales; 2) determining fire’s interactions with carbon cycling, water balance, fuel buildup, and invasive species; 3) increasing our mechanistic understanding of fire-induced soil hydrophobicity and its influence on hydrology; 4) improving models of fire processes and eco-hydrological fire effects; 5) improving characterization and modeling of fire emissions and their aging; 6) adapting aerial robots for greatly improved data collection under hazardous or challenging conditions (e.g., characterizing smoke plumes, fire processes, and ecohydrology); and 7) developing computer vision/machine learning data fusion to process and assimilate multisensory data into fire and ecosystem models.

HDRFS research will contribute to understanding the spatial scaling of fire processes and effects over ~eight orders of magnitude in area, with the goal of using laboratory and other small-scale results for predicting and modeling large scale wildland fire processes and effects. In parallel with its research and capacity-building program, HDRFS will also engage students, educators, and practitioners via a series of outreach and workforce development activities aimed at achieving a more diverse, STEM-capable population and workforce in Nevada.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.