BLM GEOSPATIAL DATA METADATA

FGDC COMPLIANT GEOSPATIAL DATA METADATA DOCUMENTATION

INCLUDES FGDC MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS ONLY

Section 1. IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION

Citation information

Originator: Alaska Fire Service
Publication date: 11/19/99
Title: Historical Fire Perimeters
Edition: 2
Geospatial data presentation form: map
Series name: N/A
Issue identification: N/A
Publication place: Ft. Wainwright, Alaska
Publisher: Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Fire Service
Other citation details: N/A
Larger work citation: N/A

Abstract

Historical wildland fire perimeters. Contains fires greater than 1000 ac between 1950 and 1987, inclusive, and fires greater than 100 ac between 1988 and 1999, inclusive. Also contains 10 meter buffers around reported start locations for fires greater than 1000 ac for which no perimeter map has been located.

Purpose

Graphical display of wildland fire history in Alaska. Some estimates of acreages burned and wildfire distribution may be made, but there are 300+ missing fires that will impact the results of such use.

Supplemental information

Time period of content

Single Date/Time
- Calendar Date:
Multiple Dates/Times
- List of Dates/Times
Range of Dates/Times
- Begin date: 1950
- End date: 1999

Currentness reference

Historical records kept of fires during each year.

Progress

IN WORK

Maintenance & update frequency

Annual

Bounding coordinates (in decimal degrees of longitude and latitude)

West bounding coordinate: -179.142
East bounding coordinate: -129.994
North bounding coordinate: 71.392
South bounding coordinate: 51.217
Data set G-polygon exclusion G-ring: N/A

Theme keyword thesaurus

NONE

Theme keyword

FIRE PERIMETER FOREST FIRE WILDLAND FIRE

Access constraints

None

Use constraints

Should not be used at a scale larger than 1:63,360

Section 2. DATA QUALITY INFORMATION

Attribute accuracy report

Attribute accuracy not yet evaluated

Attribute accuracy value

UNKNOWN

Attribute accuracy explanation

N/A

Logical consistency report

NOT YET EVALUATED

Completeness report

Fires with perimeters not yet located are represented as 10 m buffers around the point of origin. Work on locating additional perimeters is ongoing. Some perimeters are partial where they cross quad boundaries and one map was not yet located. Some fires may be missing completely if no incident report was located.

Positional accuracy

Horizontal positional accuracy report

No formal evaluation conducted. RMS error of map registration when digitizing is no greater than 20 ground meters.

Horizontal positional accuracy value in ground meters

RMS <= 20 ground meters. No evaluation of true vs digitized feature position has been conducted. Estimate about +- 200 m since 1980 and up to +- 500 m prior.

Horizontal positional accuracy explanation

RMS error was restricted to no more than 20 ground meters when digitizing perimeters from source maps. Perimeter mapping methods have varied over time, and the accuracy of the source maps is unknown. Much more emphasis has been place on accurate fire mapping in recent years.

Vertical positional accuracy report

N/A

Vertical positional accuracy value

N/A

Vertical positional accuracy explanation

N/A

Data sources

Source citation:
- Originator: Alaska Fire Service
- Publication date: varies for each fire
- Title: Incident report for each specific fire
- Edition: N/A
- Geospatial data presentation form: map
- Series name:
- Issue identification:
- Publication place: Ft. Wainwright, Alaska
- Publisher:Alaska Fire Service
- Other citation details:
- Larger work citation:
Source scale denominator: varies
Type of source media: paper
Source time period of content:
- Single Date/Time
  - Calendar Date: Date fire was declared out
- Multiple Dates/Times
  - List of Dates/Times
- Range of Dates/Times
  - Begin date:
  - End date:
Source currentness reference:
Incident report
Source citation abbreviation:
fire report
Source contribution:
xerox copy of perimeter map

Source citation:
- Originator: U.S. Geological Survey
- Publication date: varies for each map
- Title: USGS quadrangle series map
- Edition: N/A
- Geospatial data presentation form: map
- Series name: 15 minute quadrangle series
- Issue identification:N/A
- Publication place: Reston, Virginia
- Publisher:U.S. Geological Survey
- Other citation details:
- Larger work citation:
Source scale denominator: 63,360
Type of source media: paper
Source time period of content:
- Single Date/Time
  - Calendar Date:
- Multiple Dates/Times
  - List of Dates/Times
- Range of Dates/Times
  - Begin date:1940
  - End date:1980
Source currentness reference:
Date of survey and photo revisions on map sheets
Source citation abbreviation:
quad map
Source contribution:
georeferencing for fire perimeters

Source citation:
- Originator: Alaska Fire Service or Environmental Resrouces Institute of Michigan
- Publication date: varies for each map
- Title: N/A
- Edition: N/A
- Geospatial data presentation form: map
- Series name: N/A
- Issue identification:N/A
- Publication place: Ft. Wainwright, Alaska
- Publisher:Same as originator
- Other citation details:
- Larger work citation:
Source scale denominator: 63,360
Type of source media: paper
Source time period of content:
- Single Date/Time
  - Calendar Date: Date fire was declared out
- Multiple Dates/Times
  - List of Dates/Times
- Range of Dates/Times
  - Begin date:
  - End date:
Source currentness reference:
Incident report
Source citation abbreviation:
hardcopy
Source contribution:
georeferenced fire perimeter

Source citation:
- Originator: Alaska Fire Service or Environmental Resources Institute of Michigan
- Publication date: varies for each map
- Title: varies by incident number
- Edition: N/A
- Geospatial data presentation form: map
- Series name: N/A
- Issue identification:N/A
- Publication place: Ft. Wainwright, Alaska or Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Publisher:Same as originator
- Other citation details:
- Larger work citation:
Source scale denominator: 63,360
Type of source media: online
Source time period of content:
- Single Date/Time
  - Calendar Date: Date fire was declared out
- Multiple Dates/Times
  - List of Dates/Times
- Range of Dates/Times
  - Begin date:
  - End date:
Source currentness reference:
incident report
Source citation abbreviation:
digital utm
Source contribution:
automated fire perimeters referenced to a UTM grid in the appropriate zone

Source citation:
- Originator: Alaska Fire Service or Environmental Resources Institute of Michigan
- Publication date: varies for each map
- Title: varies by incident number
- Edition: N/A
- Geospatial data presentation form: map
- Series name: N/A
- Issue identification:N/A
- Publication place: Ft. Wainwright, Alaska or Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Publisher:Same as originator
- Other citation details:
- Larger work citation:
Source scale denominator: 63,360
Type of source media: online
Source time period of content:
- Single Date/Time
  - Calendar Date: Date fire was declared out
- Multiple Dates/Times
  - List of Dates/Times
- Range of Dates/Times
  - Begin date:
  - End date:
Source currentness reference:
incident report
Source citation abbreviation:
digital albers
Source contribution:
automated fire perimeters referenced to an Albers Equal Area grid

Production process

Process description:
Perimeter map from incident report was hand-transferred to a clean 1:63,360 scale USGS quadrangle series map.
Source used citation abbreviation (from above): fire report, quad map
Process date: varies
Source produced citation abbreviation:hardcopy

Process description:
Perimeter map from hardcopy was manually digitized with a maximum acceptable RMS error of registration of 20 ground meters.
Source used citation abbreviation (from above): hardcopy
Process date: varies
Source produced citation abbreviation:digital utm

Process description:
Digital perimeters in UTM projections were projected to an Albers Equal Area projection with standard parallels at 55.0 and 65.0 degrees north, a central meridian of -154.0 degrees and a projection origin at 50.0 degrees north.
Source used citation abbreviation (from above): digital utm
Process date: varies
Source produced citation abbreviation:digital albers

Process description:
Digital permiters in the Albers projection were map joined and edge matched to produce a single coverage containing perimeters for each year.
Source used citation abbreviation (from above): digital albers
Process date: varies
Source produced citation abbreviation:current data set

Process description:
Coverage for each year was built with region topology then sequentially unioned to for a single statewide coverage.
Source used citation abbreviation (from above): digital albers
Process date: varies
Source produced citation abbreviation:statewide albers data set

Process description:
Statewide coverage was reprojected to a double precision geographic (decimal degrees) projection.
Source used citation abbreviation (from above): statewide albers data set
Process date: varies
Source produced citation abbreviation:current data set

Cloud cover (expressed as a percentage of the spatial extent)

N/A

Section 3. SPATIAL DATA ORGANIZATION INFORMATION

Indirect spatial reference method

Wildland fire perimeters

Direct spatial reference method

Vector

Base vector feature description(s)

SDTS point & vector object type:
Label point
Point & vector object count:
varies by year
VPF topology level:
1
VPF point and vector object type:
node

SDTS point & vector object type:
Area chain
Point & vector object count:
varies by year
VPF topology level:
1
VPF point and vector object type:
edge

SDTS point & vector object type:
Universe polygon composed of chains
Point & vector object count:
1
VPF topology level:
1
VPF point and vector object type:
Edge

Base raster feature description(s)

Raster object type:
N/A
Row count:
N/A
Column count:
N/A
Vertical count:
N/A

Section 4. SPATIAL REFERENCE INFORMATION

Latitude resolution

Varies by year, up to 0.003 degree

Longitude resolution

Varies by year, up to 0.003 degree

Geographic coordinate units (units used to express previous 2 fields)

decimal degrees

Map projection

Geographic

Standard parallel:
N/A
Longitude of central meridian:
N/A
latitude of projection origin:
N/A
false easting:
0
false northing:
0
scale factor at equator:
N/A
height of perspective point above surface:
N/A
longitude of prjection center:
N/A
latitude of projection center:
N/A
scale factor at center line:
unknown
oblique line azimuth:
N/A
azimuthal angle:
N/A
azimuth measure point longitude:
N/A
oblique line point:
N/A
oblique line latitude:
N/A
oblique line longitude:
N/A
straight vertical longitude from pole:
N/A
scale factor at projection origin:
unknown
landsat number:
N/A
path number:
N/A
scale factor at central meridian:
N/A

Grid coordinate system name

Geographic

UTM zone number

N/A

UPS zone identifier

N/A

SPCS zone identifier

N/A

ARC coordinate system zone identifier

N/A

local planar description

N/A

local planar georeference information

N/A

Planar coordinate encoding method

Coordinate pair

Abscissa resolution

Ordinate resolution

Distance resolution

Planar distance units (units used to express previous 3 fields)

Bearing resoultion

N/A

Bearing units (units used to express previous field)

N/A

Bearing reference direction

N/A

Bearing reference meridian

N/A

Local description

N/A

Local georeference information

N/A

Horizontal datum name

North American Datum of 1927

Ellipsoid name

Clarke 1866

Semi-major axis

6378206.4

Denominator of flattening ratio

0.996609925

Altitude datum name

N/A

Altitude resolution

N/A

Altitude distance units

N/A

Altitude encoding method

N/A

Depth datum name

N/A

Depth resolution

N/A

Depth distance units

N/A

Depth encoding method

N/A

Section 5. ENTITY AND ATTRIBUTE INFORMATION

Geographic entity description

Entity type
- Entity type label:
  fire perimeter
- Entity type definition:
  Outer perimeter of burned area
- Entity type definition source:
  NONE
Entity attributes
- Attribute label: BOUNDARY
- Attribute definition: Indicates whether the current record is a perimeter (fire boundary), a 10 m buffer around the reported point of origin, or an unburned polygon created during the intersection of two or more burned areas.
- Attribute definition source: NONE
- Attribute domain values:
  - FOR ENUMERATED DOMAINS,
    - Enumerated domain value:
    - Enumerated domain value definition:
    - Enumerated domain value definition source:
  - FOR RANGE DOMAINS,
    - Range domain minimum:
    - Range domain maximum:
  - FOR CODESET DOMAINS,
    - Codeset name:
    - Codeset source:
  - FOR UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAINS
    - Description: 'Y' for records that are mapped fire perimeters, 'N' for records that are buffers around points of origin, blank for "doughnut holes."
- Attribue units of measurement: N/A
- Beginning date of attribute values:1950
- Ending date of attribute values:1999
- Attribute label: COUNTRY
- Attribute definition: Country in which the fire originated
- Attribute definition source: NONE
- Attribute domain values:
  - FOR ENUMERATED DOMAINS,
    - Enumerated domain value:
    - Enumerated domain value definition:
    - Enumerated domain value definition source: NONE
  - FOR RANGE DOMAINS,
    - Range domain minimum:
    - Range domain maximum:
  - FOR CODESET DOMAINS,
    - Codeset name:
    - Codeset source:
  - FOR UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAINS
    - Description: This should be AK for all records in the data set.
- Attribue units of measurement: N/A
- Beginning date of attribute values:1950
- Ending date of attribute values:1999
- Attribute label: YEAR
- Attribute definition: Year in which the fire was documented
- Attribute definition source: NONE
- Attribute domain values:
  - FOR ENUMERATED DOMAINS,
    - Enumerated domain value: 1950.00 - 1999.00
    - Enumerated domain value definition: Year in which the fire was documented
    - Enumerated domain value definition source: NONE
  - FOR RANGE DOMAINS,
    - Range domain minimum:
    - Range domain maximum:
  - FOR CODESET DOMAINS,
    - Codeset name:
    - Codeset source:
  - FOR UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAINS
    - Description:
- Attribue units of measurement: Years
- Beginning date of attribute values:1950
- Ending date of attribute values:1999
- Attribute label: ACRES_BURNED
- Attribute definition:Calculated size of the digitized perimeter except for fires with Boundary='N' this is the reported size of the fire.
- Attribute definition source: NONE
- Attribute domain values:
  - FOR ENUMERATED DOMAINS,
    - Enumerated domain value:
    - Enumerated domain value definition:
    - Enumerated domain value definition source:
  - FOR RANGE DOMAINS,
    - Range domain minimum: 0.0
    - Range domain maximum:1,366,799
  - FOR CODESET DOMAINS,
    - Codeset name:
    - Codeset source:
  - FOR UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAINS
    - Description:
- Attribue units of measurement: acres
- Beginning date of attribute values:1950
- Ending date of attribute values:1999
- Attribute label: HA_BURNED
- Attribute definition:Calculated size of the digitized perimeter in hectares except for fires with BOUNDARY='N' this is the reported acres converted to hectares.
- Attribute definition source: NONE
- Attribute domain values:
  - FOR ENUMERATED DOMAINS,
    - Enumerated domain value:
    - Enumerated domain value definition:
    - Enumerated domain value definition source:
  - FOR RANGE DOMAINS,
    - Range domain minimum: 0.0
    - Range domain maximum:553,124
  - FOR CODESET DOMAINS,
    - Codeset name:
    - Codeset source:
  - FOR UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAINS
    - Description:
- Attribue units of measurement: hectares
- Beginning date of attribute values:1950
- Ending date of attribute values:1999

Entity and attribute overview

Type of perimeter, country of origin, year, incident number, and size of the fire represented by the entity.

Entity and attribute detail citation

NONE

Section 6. DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION

Distributor

ALASKA FIRE SERVICE

Contact person:
GIS Coordinator
Contact organization primary:
ALASKA FIRE SERVICE
Address type:
MAILING ADDRESS
Address:
P.O. Box 35005
City:
Ft. Wainwright
State or Province:
Alaska
Postal code:
99703
Contact voice telephone:
(907)356-5581 or (907)474-2210
Contact facsimile telephone:
(907)356-5583
Contact electronic mail address:
tim_hammond@ak.blm.gov

Resource description

fire history dataset

Distribution liability

The Bureau of Land Management and The Alaska Fire Service provide no warranty, express or implied, with regard to the content, format, quality, or accuracy of this data. The Alaska Fire Service accepts no responsibility for inappropriate or uninformed use of this data. No warranty is made by BLM as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of these data for individual use or aggregate use with other data.

STANDARD ORDER PROCESS FOR

Non-digital form
Request a DRAFT FIRE HISTORY MAP from the contacts listed above.
Digital form:
- Format name:
  ARC (Arc/Info Coverage)
- Format version number:
  7.2.1
- Format version date:
  1998
- File decompression technique:
  NO COMPRESSION APPLIED
- FOR ON-LINE ACCESS:
  - Network address:ftp@ftp.ak.blm.gov
  - Network resource name:to be arranged
  - Lowest BPS:N/A
  - Highest BPS:N/A
  - Number DataBits:N/A
  - Number StopBits:N/A
  - Parity:N/A
  - Compression support:N/A
  - DIALUP TELEPHONE:N/A
  - Dialup file name:N/A
  - Access instructions:contact by voice phone first
  - Online computer and operating system:IBM RS6000 running AIX ver 4.2
- FOR OFF-LINE ACCESS:
  - Offline media:8 mm cartridge tape or CD-ROM
  - Recording density:variable
  - Recording density units:blocks
  - Recording format:tar for tape,
  - Compatibility information:Exabyte 8200, low compression, variable block size

Fees

NONE

Custom order process

NONE

Section 7. METADATA REFERENCE INFORMATION

Metadata date

November 19, 1999

Metadata review date

November 1, 2000

Metadata contact

Contact person:
GIS Coordinator
Contact organization primary:
Alaska Fire Service
Address type:
Mailing
Address:
P.O. Box 35005
City:
Ft. Wainwright
State or Province:
Alaska
Postal code:
99703
Contact voice telephone:
(907)356-5581
Contact facsimile telephone:
(907)356-5049
Contact electronic mail address:
tim_hammond@ak.blm.gov

Metadata standard name

FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata

Metadata standard version

June 8, 1994

Metadata time convention

N/A