In 9th week's GIS lab, we are focusing on studying LA County's wild fire by applying all the knowledges that we learned from GEO 7 class. I have choose to study wild fire's effects on both natrual ecosystem and populated urban areas. In the first picture is the overall spread of wild fire throught out august and september in 2009. The fire appear to be spreading northward towards the mountain peaks. The fire first started in a very small and contained area; however, within a 12 hour shift, the fire has spread rapidly cross the wild land. The fire is very close to the Glendale area which is a populated city in LA county. In August 30th, the most notable spread of fire has occured. The fire has expanded quickly but did not brought devastating damages to populated places, since it remains in a vast wild land between Palmdale, La Canada Flintridge, and Agua Dulce. The Area lacks development because of high slope and complicated landscapes.
The theme of my map is the station wild fire's effects on both significant ecological area and urban populated area in LA county. The Significant Ecological Area (SEA) Program is a component of the Los Angeles County General Plan Conservaition/Open Space Element. SEAs are ecologically important land and water systems that support valuable habitat for plants and animals, often integral to the preservation of rare, threatened or endangered species and the conservation of biological diversity in the County. While SEAs are not preserves, they are areas where the County deems it important to facilitate a balance between development and resource conservation. Wild fire occure in the plains normally in California. Invasive, non-native vegetation dies and re-sprouts year after year creating an unnatural buildup of dead plant material. While periodic fires are natural, and many native plants depend upon fire to reproduce, the intensity and frequency of these fires is altered by the presence of non-natives. As the map has shown the proposed SEA in 2011, 2 years after the station fire. Although the wild fire has barely burned on the side of SEA area, the fire has actually never developed in SEA.
Although SEA has not been affected by the station fire, however, wild fire has potentially effected the way we propose SEAs. As SEA requires biological diversity and valuable habitat for plants and animals, the area which station fire has occur certainly does not contains these traits. The areas are constantly under the threat of wild fire, and landscape is constantly changing with burns. these areas would not provide any valuable habitats or biological diversities. All of the SEAs are chosen around the area where wild fire occurs or somewhere no near the wild fire, such as coastal areas.
Also the station fire has brought some impact onto the urban populated area. As shown in the third picture, showing the populated area in LA county. Although the wild fire has not enter populated area, more than 100 structures are burned and 2 firefighter has died in the incident. The wild fire has not entered the urban area, because first the station fire is actually a forest fire, which is burned towards the denser forest which is northward towards the peaks of San Gabirel Mountains. Secondly, the winds are blowing towards the mountain area. Also lastly LA county has thousands of fire fighters trying to contain the fire from burning into Glendale and Pasadena area. Luckly the fire has not enter the populated area as shown in the map.
To conclude my report, the wild fire has threatened LA county for many years. These wild fires are part of natrual process which is vital to our natrual ecosystem. We cannot stop the wild fire from burnning through the wild lands; however, we can use GIS equipments and remote sensing tools to studying the wild fires, and try to find ways to prevent it from spreading out into other places, such as populated towns or SEAs. GIS equipments and remote sensing tools can also help people to stay away from wild fire threatened areas in the furture.
References
Wildfires in Southern California." Boston.com. The Boston Globe, 02 Sept. 2009. Web. 14 June 2012. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/wildfires_in_southern_californ.html.
Franchino, Nick. "Significant Ecological Areas (SEA) – Proposed." Significant Ecological Areas (SEA) – Proposed. Los Angeles County GIS Data Portal, 12 Dec. 2011. Web. 15 June 2012. http://egis3.lacounty.gov/dataportal/index.php/2011/12/12/significant-ecological-areas-sea-proposed/.
Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning." SEA Program. Department of Regional Planning, n.d. Web. 15 June 2012. http://planning.lacounty.gov/sea.
"CAL FIRE - Incidents." CAL FIRE - Incidents. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, n.d. Web. 15 June 2012. http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_current.
Calasanz, Francis. "Los Angeles County Boundary." Los Angeles County Boundary. Los Angeles County GIS Data Portal, 27 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 June 2012. http://egis3.lacounty.gov/dataportal/index.php/2011/01/27/los-angeles-county-boundary/.
