The Climate and Wildfire Institute offers research as a service, working closely with partners to align research services with policy and on-the-ground needs. Below are identified priorities for research services that the Institute can deliver. Actual services depend on ongoing agency needs and are co-developed with key partners.
RESEARCH PRIORITIES
PLANNING & POLICY
Strategies for wildfire risk mitigation under a changing climate that are regionally specific, landscape-scale, and long-term.
PRIORITY
Quantify carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions from unmanaged and managed wildfires while considering increases in carbon dioxide concentrations and climate change.
PRIORITY
Analyze the relationship between land use regulations and wildfire risk at local and state government levels; developing policy recommendations for more effective land use governance in the context of wildfire risk.
PRIORITY
Produce publicly available and active fire forecasts—for all fires—using multiple wildfire models to account for weather, type of fires, situational complexity, and uncertainty.
PRIORITY
Develop improved, spatially refined, and anticipated fuels and fire weather intelligence, available as input to fire behavior models for up to a six-month fire risk prediction.
FIRE HINDCASTS & FORECASTS
Active fire behavior forecasts, and hindcasts to diagnose critical drivers of wildfire behavior.
FIRE PERIMETERS
Location of current active fires for emergency response and accurate archive of fire perimeters.
PRIORITY
Build a real-time detection system of active fire perimeters that incorporates input from multiple sources, including remote sensing platforms and unstructured ground-based observations, enhancing capacity for the use of managed wildfire.
PRIORITY
Coordinate mapping efforts to create consistent, accurate, and timely fire perimeter maps, including historical fire perimeters.
PRIORITY
Develop high-resolution nowcast and forecast versions of vegetation and fuel data products through a collaboration between land managers, federal agencies, and private industry to achieve best-in-class science and technology.
PRIORITY
Simulate the effects of alternate vegetation management strategies—including those informed by traditional ecological knowledge—on future tree mortality and wildfire risk in the coming fire season and the coming decades.
VEGETATION & FUELS
Nowcasts and forecasts of vegetation and fuels to better inform management of fire risk and ecosystem resilience.
CLIMATE & WEATHER
Robust, sector-specific, and timely forecasts to inform risks and mitigation.
PRIORITY
Develop high-resolution characterizations of surface winds and wind-driven fire risk within weather forecasts and climate projections. New and robust observations of surface winds in field campaigns and intensive development of atmospheric models will inform this development.
