How and why Upper Colorado River Basin land, water, and fire managers choose to use drought tools (or not)

Cravens, Amanda E.

doi:10.3133/ofr20181173

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Despite the limitations of the Landsat BA product, based on manager feedback, we feel that this effort is worth expanding, specifically by including as much of the Landsat archive as possible to generate BA products and capture information on ecosystems with fire rotations longer than 10 years. This effort, therefore, should be considered a starting point for managers and researchers to work together to evaluate the process, methodology, and fire products at a state or subregional level in order to develop tools and products that will be helpful in the future (sensu [37,56]). A comprehensive validation study is needed to evaluate these products, and a process with which to incorporate updates and suggestions for improvement of burn mapping protocols would be of value given the fragmented nature of prescribed fire spatial data.…”

Section: Utility Of the Datasetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Landsat BA products could potentially provide additional/unknown burn locations and extents within the SE, including smaller fires (e.g., fires smaller the 200 ha threshold used by MTBS in the eastern US) or those not recorded in other national datasets (i.e., areas where reporting is not required, such as on private property). Even though the Landsat BA products have great potential to assess past patterns of burning, managers may be hesitant to adopt new information without first understanding how they differ from existing, known data [37]. Therefore, assessing and understanding differences between the Landsat BA products and existing fire information is a necessary step to complete before deriving additional data layers or metrics characterizing fire histories, quantifying how those metrics vary across habitats and ownerships, or how those metrics relate to decision making.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Using the Landsat Burned Area Products to Derive Fire History Relevant for Fire Management and Conservation in the State of Florida, Southeastern USA

Teske

Vanderhoof

Hawbaker

et al. 2021

Fire

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Development of comprehensive spatially explicit fire occurrence data remains one of the most critical needs for fire managers globally, and especially for conservation across the southeastern United States. Not only are many endangered species and ecosystems in that region reliant on frequent fire, but fire risk analysis, prescribed fire planning, and fire behavior modeling are sensitive to fire history due to the long growing season and high vegetation productivity. Spatial data that map burned areas over time provide critical information for evaluating management successes. However, existing fire data have undocumented shortcomings that limit their use when detailing the effectiveness of fire management at state and regional scales. Here, we assessed information in existing fire datasets for Florida and the Landsat Burned Area products based on input from the fire management community. We considered the potential of different datasets to track the spatial extents of fires and derive fire history metrics (e.g., time since last burn, fire frequency, and seasonality). We found that burned areas generated by applying a 90% threshold to the Landsat burn probability product matched patterns recorded and observed by fire managers at three pilot areas. We then created fire history metrics for the entire state from the modified Landsat Burned Area product. Finally, to show their potential application for conservation management, we compared fire history metrics across ownerships for natural pinelands, where prescribed fire is frequently applied. Implications of this effort include increased awareness around conservation and fire management planning efforts and an extension of derivative products regionally or globally.

show abstract

Section: Utility Of the Datasetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using the Landsat Burned Area Products to Derive Fire History Relevant for Fire Management and Conservation in the State of Florida, Southeastern USA

Teske

Vanderhoof

Hawbaker

et al. 2021

Fire

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…• Limited resources of users to vet the credibility of new tools; high transaction costs for users to switch from a known information source to a new tool; and difficulties keeping track and differentiating between tools with similar purposes (Cravens, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Usability can also be a significant barrier to the success of DSTs. Specific usability challenges for scientific information products include mismatches between the type or scale of information provided and the needs of users (for example: Wong-Parodi and others, 2020; Cravens, 2016;Cravens, 2018;Dilling and Lemos, 2011), users' perceptions of the usefulness and trustworthiness of the information or product (for example: Cash and others, 2006;Dunn and Laing, 2017;Jacobs and Buizer, 2016;White and others, 2010), and users' capacities to interpret and incorporate the information into decision making (for example: Dilling and Lemos, 2011;van der Molen and others,2018). Information products may not adequately account for how users understand decision contexts; for example, Cravens (2018) described a manager who thought of their region (the Southern Rockies) in terrestrial as opposed to watershed terms and thus saw no relevance in a drought early warning system focused on the "Upper Colorado River" despite the overlapping geographies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

So, you want to build a decision-support tool? Assessing successes, barriers, and lessons learned for tool design and development

Stoltz,

Cravens,

Herman-Mercer

et al. 2023

Scientific Investigations Report

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of how the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is developing decision-support tools (DSTs) by documenting successes and barriers across all levels of USGS scientific tool creation and outreach. These findings can help streamline future tool design and development processes. We provide a synthesis of lessons learned and best practices across a spectrum of USGS decision-support efforts to, A, provide guidance to future efforts and, B, identify knowledge gaps and opportunities for knowledge transfer and integration. We present this information as five guiding principles for those striving to create effective DSTs. These principles are: (1) use an adaptive, iterative design process, (2) collaborate across disciplines and organizations, (3) engage with the target users of the tool, (4) develop an empirical understanding of use and usability, and (5) plan for the tool's full life span. By providing guidance on how effective DSTs are realized at every phase of development (from planning to maintenance), these principles provide a starting point to improve the process of designing DSTs and thus help further the USGS mission of delivering actionable science.Design time.-10 months Team lead(s).

show abstract

“…As such, one aspect of drought that has traditionally received less attention is its ecological impacts. Perhaps this is because ecological impacts are harder to measure and monitor (McEvoy et al 2018;Cravens 2018) or because it is more difficult to assign a monetary value for damages to ecosystems (van Dijk et al 2013). Despite the challenge of doing so, as droughts become more frequent and severe in many locations in the face of climate change, federal land management agencies have begun giving drought greater attention (e.g., Vose et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Ecological Impacts: Perspectives on Drought in the Upper Missouri Headwaters, Montana, United States

Cravens

McEvoy

Zoanni

et al. 2021

Weather, Climate, and Society

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Drought is a complex challenge experienced in specific locations through diverse impacts, including ecological impacts. Different professionals involved in drought preparedness and response approach the problem from different points of view, which means they may or may not recognize ecological impacts. This study examines the extent to which interviewees perceive ecological drought in the Upper Missouri Headwaters basin in southwestern Montana. Through semistructured interviews, this research investigates individuals’ perceptions of drought by analyzing how they define drought, how they describe their roles related to drought, and the extent to which they emphasize ecological impacts of drought. Results suggest that while most interviewees have an integrated understanding of drought, they tend to emphasize either ecological or nonecological impacts of drought. This focus was termed their drought orientation. Next, the analysis considers how participants understand exposure to drought. Results indicate that participants view drought as a complex problem driven by both human and natural factors. Last, the paper explores understandings of the available solution space by examining interviewees’ views on adaptive capacity, particularly factors that facilitate or hinder the ability of the Upper Missouri Headwaters region to cope with drought. Participants emphasized that adaptive capacity is both helped and hindered by institutional, cultural, and economic factors, as well as by available information and past resource management practices. Understanding how interviewees perceive the challenges of drought can shape drought preparedness and response, allowing those designing programs to better align their efforts to the perceptions of their target audience.

show abstract

How and why Upper Colorado River Basin land, water, and fire managers choose to use drought tools (or not)

Cited by 7 publications

References 17 publications

Using the Landsat Burned Area Products to Derive Fire History Relevant for Fire Management and Conservation in the State of Florida, Southeastern USA

Using the Landsat Burned Area Products to Derive Fire History Relevant for Fire Management and Conservation in the State of Florida, Southeastern USA

So, you want to build a decision-support tool? Assessing successes, barriers, and lessons learned for tool design and development

Integrating Ecological Impacts: Perspectives on Drought in the Upper Missouri Headwaters, Montana, United States

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About