Web Applications

Network World's Web Applications Newsletter, 08/20/07

Wildfires and warnings

By Mark Gibbs

I live in Ventura, Calif., and as I write this, it’s hot (we’re in a bit of a heat wave – down in the San Fernando Valley it keeps topping 100F!). But what's weird is the color of the sunlight – it isn’t just SoCal golden, it’s really golden. The cause? The Zaca fire north of Santa Barbara.

At present, this is the biggest wildfire in North America having consumed over 100,000 acres. A week ago it was 75% contained then it jumped to a valley that hadn’t had a fire for 100 years and containment dropped to around 35%. In just the last day the fire expanded by 15,000 acres!

All the smoke the fire is creating is heading mainly for Bakersfield making the environment there rather more hellish than usual (the average daytime temperature there this time of year is around 95F with 30% humidity).

Even if Bakersfield is getting the worst of it, most of the region has some level of smoke pollution. As of Aug. 17, we’re about 20 miles from the firefront and we have fine ash falling – not a lot but enough that you don’t want to be doing vigorous exercise outdoors.

It is the fire that prompted me for the issue’s topic: Public information services on the Web and specifically wildfire mapping.

One of the best services in this category is Geomac, the Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination, a service provided by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, hosted by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Rocky Mountain Mapping Center.

The Geographical Information System (GIS) Web interface was built using ArcIMS and ArcSDE from ESRI sitting on top of an Oracle database.

The user interface is very good, it is a little complex for novice users, but it provides as much information as professional users could want. You can examine current fires and their perimeters; overlay satellite thermal images; display fires from previous years back to 2001; identify weather stations; and add or remove map features (such as a shaded relief, cities and towns, roads and interstates, states, counties, land ownership data, etc.). It also lets you jump directly to a specific fire along with zooming, panning, and printing. In short, it is a terrific resource.

Then there’s air quality data but that’s in a different place. For my area that can be found under the California Air Quality Maps at AirNow!.

I’m waiting for somebody to come up with a service for the public that would allow you to specify your location and be notified when a fire is within so many miles of you and would warn you of unhealthy smoke conditions. This is very important not only to consumers in general but also businesses, schools, farms, ranches, and pretty much anyone who lives in wildfire regions.

So, kudos to all of the governmental agencies for getting such great resources online. Now who’s going to make them useful to anyone and everyone?

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist and now blogger: Check out Gibbsblog.

Gibbs not only pens (well, keyboards) this newsletter he also writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World. We’ll spare you the rest of the bio but if you want to know more, go here

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