Faith R. Kearns

Classification of the wildland–urban interface: A comparison of pixel- and object-based classifications using high-resolution aerial photography

Abstract The expansion of urban development into wildland areas can have significant consequences, including an increase in the risk of structural damage from wildfire. Land-use and land-cover maps can assist decision-makers in targeting and prioritizing risk mitigation activities, and remote sensing techniques provide effective and efficient methods to create such maps. However, some image processing approaches may be more appropriate than others in distinguishing land-use and land-cover categories, particularly when classifying high spatial resolution imagery for urbanizing environments. Here we explore the accuracy of pixel-based and object-based classification methods used for mapping in the wildland–urban interface (WUI) with free, readily available, high spatial resolution urban imagery, which is available in many places to municipal and local fire management agencies. Results indicate that an object-based classification approach provides a higher accuracy than a pixel-based classification approach when distinguishing between the selected land-use and land-cover categories. For example, an object-based approach resulted in a 41.73% greater accuracy for the built area category, which is of particular importance to WUI wildfire mitigation.

A method for the use of landscape metrics in freshwater research and management

Freshwater research and management efforts could be greatly enhanced by a better understanding of the relationship between landscape-scale factors and water quality indicators. This is particularly true in urban areas, where land transformation impacts stream systems at a variety of scales. Despite advances in landscape quantification methods, several studies attempting to elucidate the relationship between land use/land cover (LULC) and water quality have resulted in mixed conclusions. However, these studies have largely relied on compositional landscape metrics. For urban and urbanizing watersheds in particular, the use of metrics that capture spatial pattern may further aid in distinguishing the effects of various urban growth patterns, as well as exploring the interplay between environmental and socioeconomic variables. However, to be truly useful for freshwater applications, pattern metrics must be optimized based on characteristic watershed properties and common water quality point sampling methods. Using a freely available LULC data set for the Santa Clara Basin, California, USA, we quantified landscape composition and configuration for subwatershed areas upstream of individual sampling sites, reducing the number of metrics based on: (1) sensitivity to changes in extent and (2) redundancy, as determined by a multivariate factor analysis. The first two factors, interpreted as (1) patch density and distribution and (2) patch shape and landscape subdivision, explained approximately 85% of the variation in the data set, and are highly reflective of the heterogeneous urban development pattern found in the study area. Although offering slightly less explanatory power, compositional metrics can provide important contextual information.

Everything happens somewhere: using webGIS as a tool for sustainable natural resource management

Whether tracking invasive species, assessing water quality, or monitoring the spread of disease, comprehensive data collection is a key component of sustainable natural resource management. Increasingly, fostering community-based monitoring is seen as a valuable way to augment data gathering and enhance public involvement in environmental management. However, growing quantities of data and increasing interest from the public and decision makers create technical data storage and access issues. Although not yet widely used in natural resource management, Web-based Geographic Information Systems (webGIS), a hybrid of GIS and Internet technologies, are a promising option for entering and storing heterogeneous datasets, indexed by location, and making them widely available in a visual, dynamic, and interactive format. Although webGIS has the potential to increase public participation in environmental management, there are technical, institutional, and social challenges to its implementation and usage that need to be addressed, including differential Internet access, training, and privacy.

Methods for facilitating web-based participatory research informatics

Abstract Scientific datasets are often generated and used by “communities”, or groups of users and creators. These communities, today often virtual, can include researchers, decision-makers, and the general public; participants in these communities may contribute different components during various iterations in the data generation process, and have different needs for resulting data products. As this “participatory research informatics” model, which includes elements of collaborative research, public participation, and digital data libraries, becomes the norm, new approaches to dynamic data management will be important. Researchers commonly use the web as a medium for research collaboration among colleagues, as well as to disseminate results to decision-makers and the public. In addition, the web can be used to facilitate dynamic collaboration by allowing research-in-progress to be accessed and edited by multiple participants. Indeed, one key benefit of using the web to facilitate research projects is that data can undergo revisions and corrections while being displayed in some form over the web. However, it can be a challenge to keep track of multiple edits to files while maintaining the integrity of a web-interface. Here we describe a system for promoting collaboration in the creation, maintenance, and use of dynamic data over the web. Using simple Microsoft Excel spreadsheets combined with traditional relational databases to facilitate dynamic data generation and updates and maintain a data schema, we are able to facilitate efficient collaboration within and among participant communities. This approach allows for the separation of web display and content, which in turn allows participants to be responsible for their own content. This separation simplifies the interaction between those responsible for the content (researchers and other participants), those responsible for the data display (web designers), and those responsible for data management, storage, and retrieval (web programmers). The approach described here is particularly well suited to large, spatially-specific ecological datasets because it can be used to facilitate the “real-time” editing and display of visual data such as web-maps, as well as to encourage multiple participants to both contribute to and interact with “beta” data and content.

The Fire Information Engine

ABSTRACT The recently established Center for Fire Research and Outreach at the University of California, Berkeley has developed a web-based toolkit, the Fire Information Engine Toolkit (FIET), for wildfire-related needs. The FIET is intended to meet the needs of diverse user groups (homeowners, decision-makers, including fire operations, and researchers) at a variety of scales (local, community, and regional levels) before, during, and after wildfires. During the initial phase of the FIET, we have focused on developing pre-fire tools for homeowners and decision-makers at the local and community levels. For example, we have developed a science-based, parcel-level structure vulnerability assessment and ranking approach that will help homeowners and communities to identify hazards and prioritize planning and mitigation activities. A version of this assessment can be completed anonymously by homeowners interested in decreasing their vulnerability to wildfire, and a similar version can be downloaded and used by decision-makers on a community-wide level. In addition, we have developed a number of innovative web-based Geographic Information System (webGIS) applications including an interface to display results of the structure vulnerability assessment at a community level, as well as search-by-address maps of Californias wildland-urban interface (WUI), fire threat, fire recurrence, and upcoming changes to building codes. In collaboration with researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the next phases of the FIET development will concentrate on enhancing the available tools, including incorporating real-time weather into fire behavior modeling and tools for evacuation modeling of natural disasters.

From science communication to relationship-building: contemplative practice and community engagement in the environmental sciences

True engagement with communities on environmental issues involves not only the technical knowledge that scientists offer, but also the ability to relate effectively. While there are now many courses and books that offer tools focused on helping scientists improve their communication skills, a fundamental piece of the communication puzzle is often left out: the ability to listen deeply. Listening is particularly important in the context of community engagement where relationships are central and it is vital that solutions be co-developed, offering a higher chance for success over the long term. Contemplative practices including meditation have the potential to enhance both individual and broader community engagement capacity. Cultivating the ability to listen and deepen the relationship to oneself and others are important components of many of these practices. Case studies applying contemplative practice—in particular the practice of mindfulness meditation, which is focused on developing self-awareness in the present moment and without judgment—in professional fields including medicine and law can be useful as environmental scientists practice community engagement and relationship-building.

Supporting sustainable groundwater management

UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) is working to develop one of the most promising groundwater recharge approaches — replenishing aquifers by spreading wintertime river flood flows onto farm lands and other open spaces.