2016_VegAge_FireCount_California.gdb (contains 8 shapefiles; names indicate region and attribute)
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Description
Citation
Information used to reference the data.
Title: 2016_VegAge_FireCount_California.gdb (contains 8 shapefiles; names indicate region and attribute)
Originators: The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is the original source of the data. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Riverside, CA (Contact: Dr. Philip J. Riggan, priggan@fs.fed.us) did however alter these data from their original condition to produce the vegetation age and fire frequency layer. The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection website states, regarding the fire perimeters used to create the vegetation age layer: "By downloading from this page, the user agrees to the following terms and conditions. The State of California and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy of data or maps. The user will not seek to hold the State or the Department liable under any circumstances for any damages with respect to any claim by the user or any third party on account of or arising from the use of data or maps.
The user will cite the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as the original source of the data, but will clearly denote cases where the original data have been updated, modified, or in any way altered from the original condition. There are no restrictions on distribution of the data by users. However, users are encouraged to refer others to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to acquire the data, in case updated data become available."
Publication date: 20160802
Data type: vector digital data
Data location: http://www.fireimaging.com, Link to these data located on right side of homepage: California Vegetation Age
Description
A characterization of the data, including its intended use and limitations.
Abstract:

    These data layers taken together cover southern California’s ‘wildlands’ and the Sierra Nevada. Southern California's 'wildlands' (southern California with the exclusion of desert, urban, agriculture, and water) are divided into three regions: (1) south-central coast; (2) San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains; and (3) San Diego, Orange, and Riverside counties. The Sierra Nevada is presented as one layer. Each region is indicated in the filename.Each of the four regions has a VEGAGE (age of vegetation in years) and FIRES (fire frequency or count) layer, already symbolized for maximum display using cartographic representations. When the layer is added from the geodatabase into an ArcMap document, the symbology is automatically displayed. The VEGAGE and FIRES count are based on fire perimeters through the year 2015.

Purpose:

    These data layers were created from Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Fire and Resource Assessment Program’s (FRAP) historical records of fire perimeters, as prepared in June 2016, and are therefore current for use during the 2016 fire season. The vegetation age and the fire frequency may be of use in the study of fire behavior.

Supplemental information:

    Throughout this document, the mention of trade names, commercial products, and enterprises is solely for information.  No endorsement by the U.S. Government is implied.

Point Of Contact
Contact information for the individual or organization that is knowledgeable about the data.
Person: Dr. Philip J. Riggan
Organization: USDA Forest Service - Pacific Southwest Research Station - Forest Fire Laboratory
Position: Research Scientist
Phone: 951-680-1534
Fax: 951-680-1501
Email: priggan@fs.fed.us
Hours of service: 0800-1600 PT, M-F
Address type: mailing and physical
Address:

    4955 Canyon Crest Drive

City: Riverside
State or Province: CA
Postal code: 92507-6071
County: USA
Data Type
How the data are represented, formatted and maintained by the data producing organization.
Data type: vector digital data
Time Period of Data
Time period(s) for which the data corresponds to the currentness reference.
Beginning date: 1878
Ending date: 20151231
Currentness reference:

    ground condition

Status
The state of and maintenance information for the data.
Data status: Complete
Update frequency: Irregular
Key Words
Words or phrases that summarize certain aspects of the data.
Theme:
Keywords: Fire perimeters, Fire history, Vegetation age, Fire count, Fire frequency, USDA Forest Service, USFS
Keyword thesaurus: None
Place:
Keywords: San Bernardino Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, Sierra Nevada, San Diego County, Orange County, Riverside County, Southern California, California
Keyword thesaurus: None
Temporal:
Keywords: 2016
Keyword thesaurus: None
Data Access Constraints
Restrictions and legal prerequisites for accessing or using the data after access is granted.
Access constraints:

    None

Use constraints:

    None

Data Security Information
Handling restrictions imposed on the data because of national security, privacy or other concerns.
Security classifiction system: None.
Security classification: Unclassified
Security handling: None.
Spatial Reference Information
Horizontal Coordinate System
Reference system from which linear or angular quantities are measured and assigned to the position that a point occupies.
Coordinate System Details
Local Coordinate System Details
Description: Projected Coordinate System: NAD_1983_California_Teale_Albers
Projection: Albers
False_Easting: 0.00000000
False_Northing: -4000000.00000000
Central_Meridian: -120.00000000
Standard_Parallel_1: 34.00000000
Standard_Parallel_2: 40.50000000
Latitude_Of_Origin: 0.00000000
Linear Unit: Meter
Geographic Coordinate System: GCS_North_American_1983
Datum: D_North_American_1983
Prime Meridian: Greenwich
Angular Unit: Degree
Geodetic model
Horizontal datum name: North American Datum of 1983
Ellipsoid name: Geodetic Reference System 80
Semi-major axis: 6378137
Denominator of flattening ratio: 298.25722210088
Spatial Domain
The geographic areal domain of the data that describes the western, eastern, northern, and southern geographic limits of data coverage.
Bounding Coordinates
Description of geographic extent:

    Southern California's 'wildlands' (southern California with the exclusion of desert, urban, agriculture, and water) are divided into three regions: (1) south-central coast; (2) San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains; and (3) San Diego, Orange, and Riverside counties. The Sierra Nevada is presented as one layer. Each region is indicated in the filename.

Data Structure and Attribute Information
Overview
Summary of the information content of the data, including other references to complete descriptions of entity types, attributes, and attribute values for the data.
Entity and attribute overview:

    These data layers were created from Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Fire and Resource Assessment Program’s (FRAP) historical records of fire perimeters, as prepared in June 2016, and are therefore current for use during the 2016 fire season.

    These data layers contains age of vegetation (VEGAGE) and fire frequency (FIRES). The values in the VEGAGE field are years since the last recorded fire (fires through 2015). An identifier of ‘9999’ indicates 'not burned in fire perimeter history, but within analyzed area'; and the rare label ‘8888’ indicates that a fire was recorded without a value in the YEAR field and thus the age of the bounded vegetation is unknown. The values in the FIRES field are fire frequency, or count, of fires through 2015, within each polygon.

Entity and attribute detailed citation:

    There is not a citation. All information is in the Overview Description.

Direct spatial reference method: Vector
Data Quality and Accuracy Information
General
Information about the fidelity of relationships, data quality and accuracy tests, omissions, selection criteria, generalization, and definitions used to derive the data.
Logical consistency report:

    Data contains projection information.

Completeness report:

    Complete.

Cloud cover: 0
Attribute Accuracy
Accuracy of the identification of data entities, features and assignment of attribute values.
Attribute accuracy report:

    Assessment not applied.

Data Source and Process Information
Process Steps
Information about events, parameters, tolerances and techniques applied to construct or derive the data.
Process step information
Process Step 1
Process description:

    Processing Steps to calculate vegetation age and fire frequency:
    >Obtained perimeters of fires processed June 2016 from FRAP’s website at http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/data/frapgisdata-sw-fireperimeters_download
    >Merged all three fire history data layers available for download: Firep15_1, Rxburn15_1, and Non_FireRX_Legacy13_1. For further information, please download the FRAP fire-perimeter layers and investigate further.
    >Clipped out general ‘wildlands’ area of Southern California, and the Sierra Nevada.
    On each of the regions:
    >Ran ArcInfo commands: shapearc, clean, projectdefine, and regionpoly. A table was created from which only the most recent fire at each polygon was retained; older fires at each polygon were deleted. One problem arose with this method: In the rare instances for which no ‘Year’ value was recorded for a burn, the associated non-dated polygon became the last polygon in the list of all dates at that location and therefore was the ‘most recent’ information retained for that polygon; these few polygons are marked with ‘8888’, indicating that there was a prescribed burn or wildfire at an unknown time, and thus the real vegage is unknown.
    >Ran ArcInfo command: regionpolycount to determine fire frequency.
    >Joined the table containing the most recent fire in each polygon to the polygon data layer. Joined the fire frequency table to the polygon data layer.
    >Added item VEGAGE (age of vegetation in years) and calculated age from year 2016.
    >Retained the California Teale-Albers NAD83 coordinate system.

Person: Dr. Philip J. Riggan
Organization: USDA Forest Service - Pacific Southwest Research Station - Forest Fire Laboratory
Position: Research Scientist
Phone: 951-680-1534
Fax: 951-680-1501
Email: priggan@fs.fed.us
Hours of service: 0800-1600 PT, M-F
Address type: mailing and physical
Address:

    4955 Canyon Crest Drive

City: Riverside
State or Province: CA
Postal code: 92507-6071
County: USA
Process date: 201608
Data Distribution Information
General
Description of the data known by the party from whom the data may be obtained, liability of party distributing data, and technical capabilities required to use the data.
Distribution liability:

    The USDA Forest Service makes no expressed or implied warranty, including warranty of merchantability and fitness, with respect to the character, function, or capabilities of the data or their appropriateness for any user's purposes.

Technical prerequisites:

    ERDAS Imagine and/or ESRI ArcGIS Suite, and supporting operating systems.

Distribution Point of Contact
Contact information for the individual or organization distributing the data.
Person: Dr. Philip J. Riggan
Organization: USDA Forest Service - Pacific Southwest Research Station - Forest Fire Laboratory
Position: Research Scientist
Phone: 951-680-1534
Fax: 951-680-1501
Email: priggan@fs.fed.us
Hours of service: 0800-1600 PT, M-F
Address type: mailing and physical
Address:

    4955 Canyon Crest Drive

City: Riverside
State or Province: CA
Postal code: 92507-6071
County: USA
Metadata Reference
Metadata Date
Dates associated with creating, updating and reviewing the metadata.
Last updated: 20160802
Metadata Point of Contact
Contact information for the individual or organization responsible for the metadata information.
Person: Lynn G. Wolden
Organization: USDA Forest Service - Pacific Southwest Research Station - Forest Fire Laboratory
Phone: 951-216-0521
Email: lwolden@fs.fed.us
Address type: mailing and physical
Address:

    4955 Canyon Crest Drive

City: Riverside
State or Province: CA
Postal code: 92507-6071
County: USA
Metadata Access Constraints
Restrictions and legal prerequisites for accessing or using the data after access is granted.
Access constraints:

    None.

Use constraints:

    None.

Metadata Security Information
Handling restrictions imposed on the metadata because of national security, privacy or other concerns.
Security classifiction system: None.
Security classification: Unclassified
Security handling: None.
Metadata Standards
Description of the metadata standard used to document the data and reference to any additional extended profiles to the standard used by the metadata producer.
Standard name: FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata
Standard version: FGDC-STD-001-1998
FGDC Plus Metadata Stylesheet
Stylesheet: FGDC Plus Stylesheet
File name: FGDC Plus.xsl
Version: 2.0
Description: This metadata is displayed using the FGDC Plus Stylesheet, which is an XSL template that can be used with ArcGIS software to display metadata. It displays metadata elements defined in the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) - aka FGDC Standard, the ESRI Profile of CSDGM, the Biological Data Profile of CSDGM, and the Shoreline Data Profile of CSDGM. CSDGM is the US Federal Metadata standard. The Federal Geographic Data Committee originally adopted the CSDGM in 1994 and revised it in 1998. According to Executive Order 12096 all Federal agencies are ordered to use this standard to document geospatial data created as of January, 1995. The standard is often referred to as the FGDC Metadata Standard and has been implemented beyond the federal level with State and local governments adopting the metadata standard as well. The Biological Data Profile broadens the application of the CSDGM so that it is more easily applied to biological data that are not explicitly geographic (laboratory results, field notes, specimen collections, research reports) but can be associated with a geographic location. Includes taxonomical vocabulary. The Shoreline Data Profile addresses variability in the definition and mapping of shorelines by providing a standardized set of terms and data elements required to support metadata for shoreline and coastal data sets. The FGDC Plus Stylesheet includes the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. It supports W3C DOM compatible browsers such as IE7, IE6, Netscape 7, and Mozilla Firefox. It is in the public domain and may be freely used, modified, and redistributed. It is provided "AS-IS" without warranty or technical support.
Instructions: On the top of the page, click on the title of the dataset to toggle opening and closing of all metadata content sections or click section links listed horizontally below the title to open individual sections. Click on a section name (e.g. Description) to open and close section content. Within a section, click on a item name (Status, Key Words, etc.) to open and close individual content items. By default, the Citation information within the Description section is always open for display.
Download: FGDC Plus Stylesheet is available from the ArcScripts downloads at www.esri.com.