GIS Requirements

PCHA and FPA have specific GIS requirements so that the FMU shapefiles are uploaded and interpreted consistently and accurately for all fire planning units (FPUs). This section explains the data requirements for PCHA and FPA. For a general overview of GIS, see the GIS Overview section.

GIS Settings for FPA-PM

This section provides an overview of the tasks required to set up the FMUs in the GIS system for FPA-PM. The following sections provide more detail about each item.

To develop a shapefile for the FMU(s), do the following tasks:

1. Use ArcView 3.x or ArcGIS version 8.x or 9.x to create the shapefile. ArcGIS Help provides detailed instructions on how to create the shapefiles. (See also Shapefile Creation , Required GIS Data Fields .)

Note: Coordinate with participating partner agencies when developing the FMUs to avoid unintentional gaps (slivers) or overlaps between common (coincident) FMU boundaries. Failure to coordinate may result in additional work for all partners later in the FPA data input process.

2. Ensure that the Shapefile coordinate system is Geographic (decimal degree latitude/longitude) and the Datum is North American Datum (NAD 83). If your data are not Geographic NAD 83, contact your GIS Specialist for help in converting it.

3. Name the file using all lowercase letters and no more than eight characters, e.g., river.shp, river.shx, river.dbf, river.prj.The system is case-sensitive.

4. Be sure that the shapefile includes the following four file extensions (see also Projection Files and ZIP® File Contents ):

• .shp: file that stores the feature geometry
• .shx: file that stores the index of the feature geometry
• .dbf: dBASE file that stores the attribute information
• .prj: file projection that stores the coordinate system and datum definition

5. Ensure that all polygons in the shapefile are closed (complete). Any gaps in a polygon boundary will result in a "topology" error when the shapefile is uploaded to the FPA-PM server. If you get this error and cannot identify or correct the problem, contact a GIS specialist for assistance.

6. If you are doing a batch upload to the FPA-PM server, verify that the FMU shapefile contains the required data fields, and that each field has a value inserted for each FMU (i.e., the attribute has been populated. (See also Required GIS Data Fields and Batch Upload vs. Single Upload .)

Note: You can upload shapefiles containing either single or multiple FMUs to the FPA-PM server. See also the Managing FMUs section in the FPA-PM User's Guide.

7. Verify that the FMU is associated with an FPU in FPA-PM before exporting your data into PCHA.

Shapefile Creation

After finalizing your FMU polygons (or if you encounter "topology" errors when uploading the shapefiles), work with your GIS specialist to ensure that the shapefile is free from slivers and overlap. One way to clean the data is to convert the shapefile to a polygon and edit it in ArcInfo Workstation (ArcEdit) or to build/clean the coverage with ArcInfo or ArcToolbox. The process of building or cleaning creates polygon topology (see Topology ). When creating the FMU polygon, it's not easy to eliminate slivers, dangles, or undershoots from shapefile, and it cannot be done in ArcView 3.x. Once you have added the topology to the coverage, you must convert it back to a shapefile.

Note: Be sure to set the appropriate tolerance levels when converting from a coverage to a shapefile to prevent the software from generalizing the polygon boundaries and thus altering the location of the FMU boundary.

Use ArcView 3.x or ArcMap to create the required and additional fields in the shapefile attribute table. (See Required GIS Data Fields .)

While multi-part shapes are acceptable, each FMU may only have one record in the attribute table. To accomplish this, you can merge polygons and in ArcMap, or use ArcToolbox or the ArcView 3.x geoprocessing wizard to dissolve on the FMU_Name field.

Layer Verification

PCHA and FPA will not be able to access the shapefiles if you don't ensure the following GIS data integrity rules:

• Verify that final FMU shapefile is created from a coverage that contained polygon topology built, or that it does not have gaps in the polygon boundaries. If you make significant or multiple edits after following the processes in GIS Settings for FPA-PM and Shapefile Creation , you may have to convert the shapefile back to a coverage and use ArcMap or ArcInfo to build or clean the coverage, then convert it back to a shapefile. Shapes with node errors will not load into the FPA-PM SDE database, and you will receive an error message.
• Eliminate overlaps and slivers (unwanted gaps) between polygons. Doing so results in a cleaner FMU file and prevents double-counting of acres in the weighting process. Perform this task on all FMUs within the planning unit that have a common (coincident) boundary, regardless of ownership.
• Ensure that there are the same number of records in the shapefile table as the number of FMUs. For example, if you have 42 FMUs, you must have exactly 42 records in the shapefile attribute table (one for each FMU).
• Ensure that all the required attribute fields are correctly defined and are populated (have values assigned).

Topology

Topology describes the spatial relationships between adjacent features, and uses x, y coordinates to identify the location of a particular point, line, or polygon. Using such data structures enforces planar relationships, and allows GIS specialists to automate error handling, to reduce artifacts from digitization, and to reduce the file size required for storing the topological data.
(See Types of GIS Topology for examples of different topologies.)

Figure 1- Types of GIS Topology

Required GIS Data Fields

The following tables describe the five required fields for FPA-PM, including the field type and length. You must include these fields in your shapefile, or the files will not upload properly.

Table 1- GIS Required Fields

Field Name	ArcMAP Field Definition	ArcView 3.x Field Definition	Description	Example	Comments
FMU_Name	Type: Text Length: 50	Type: String Width: 50	FMU Name, unique within FPU	"Clear Creek"	User-generated name of FMU; must be unique within FPU
Walkin_per	Type: Short Integer Precision: 3	Type: Number Width: 3 Decimals: 0	Percent of fires that need to be walked to	12	Percentage of fires in FMU that are walk-in. (see glossary) Entered by user. Valid Values = {0 to 100}
WTmin	Type: Long Integer Precision: 9	Type: Number Width: 10 Decimals: 0	Water Tender arrival time in minutes	35	Time (in minutes) for water tender to arrive at FMU. Used to determine when WT starts contributing to continuation of engine production. Valid Values = {0 to 999999999}
DiscovSize	Type: Float Precision: 5 Scale: 2	Type: Number Width: 5 Decimals: 2	Fire discovery size in acres	0.01	All records must contain values. Values must be one of values in the following domain: {0.01, 0.1, 0.25, 1.0, 10.0, 100.0}
IsWFU	Type: Text Length: 5	Type: Boolean	Wildland fire use allowed in FMU	"TRUE"	Determines whether FMU allows WFU {Domain = True, False} If the value is TRUE, then NFDRSFMC and NFDRSIndex become required. (see the Optional Data Fields table for more information.)

Optional GIS Data Fields

You can save yourself considerable data entry time in FPA-PM by adding the following optional fields to your shapefiles. Use ArcView 3.x or ArcMAP to populate the attribute fields in the shapefile (do not use an external application to populate the fields in the DBF file; doing so will cause errors). When done correctly using acceptable values, these data will be loaded directly into the FPA-PM database.

Create the following optional fields in your shapefile:.

Table 2- GIS Recommended Fields

Field Name	ArcMAP Field Definition	ArcView 3.x Field Definition	Required Field?	Example	Comments
Date_Cur	Type: Date	Type: Date YYYYMMDD	No	AV3.x: 20041215 ArcMAP: 12/15/2004	Date FMU geometry last modified. If you include this field you must enter a date value for each record. <Null> or blank values will cause an error.
Local_id	Type: Text Length: 50	Type: String Width: 50	No	8736233	Reference field for local GIS databases
GIS_Other	Type: Text Length: 50	Type: String Width: 50	No	Rosebud EIS FMU23	Local reference field
WDCrewEng	Type: Long Integer Precision: 9	Type: Number Width: 10 Decimals: 0	No	35	Walk-in Delay. Time in minutes for engine crew to walk to FMU workload point from vehicle. Valid Values = {0 to 999999999}
WDSmkJmpr	Type: Long Integer Precision: 9	Type: Number Width: 10 Decimals: 0	No	100	Walk-in Delay. Time in minutes for smoke jumper forces to walk to FMU workload point. Valid Values = {0 to 999999999}
WDHeliCrew	Type: Long Integer Precision: 9	Type: Number Width: 10 Decimals: 0	No	100	Walk-in Delay. Time in minutes for Helicopter crew to walk to FMU workload point. Valid Values = {0 to 999999999}
WDDozerPl	Type: Long Integer Precision: 9	Type: Number Width: 10 Decimals: 0	No	100	Walk-in Delay. Time in minutes for dozer plow to arrive at FMU workload point. Valid Values = {0 to 999999999}
Seat_rld	Type: Long Integer Precision: 9	Type: Number Width: 10 Decimals: 0	No	35	SEAT Reload Delay. Time in minutes for a Single Engine Air Tanker to fly to reload point for FMU, to reload, and then to return to FMU workload point. Valid Values = {0 to 999999999)
Eng_rld	Type: Long Integer Precision: 9	Type: Number Width: 10 Decimals: 0	No	35	Engine Reload Delay. Time in minutes for a engine to travel to reload point for FMU, to reload, and then to return to FMU workload point. Valid Values = {0 to 999999999)
Heli_rld	Type: Long Integer Precision: 9	Type: Number Width: 10 Decimals: 0	No	35	Helicopter Reload Delay (bucket work). Time in minutes for a helicopter to fly to reload point for FMU, to reload, and then to return to FMU workload point. Valid Values = {0 to 999999999)
IsCauseWFU	Type: Text Length: 5	Type: Boolean	No	False	Consider fire cause for WFU. Default = False. Valid Values = {True, False}
PerWFUGOIA	Type: Short Integer Precision: 3	Type: Number Width: 3 Decimals: 0	No	60	Percent of WFU that goes to initial attack. Default = 0. Valid Values = {0 to 100}
NFDRSFMC	Type: Text Length: 1	Type: String Width: 1	No, unless WFU is TRUE	"A"	NFDRS Fuel Model Code. Valid Values = {"A" to "X"}
NFDRSIndex	Type: Text Length: 4	Type: String Width: 4	No, unless WFU is TRUE	"BI"	NFDRS Index. Default = "NONE". Valid Values = {"BI", "ERC", "NONE"}
BI_Limit	Type: Short Integer Precision: 4	Type: Number Width: 4 Decimals: 0	No, unless NFDRSIndex = BI	842	Burn Index Limit from fuel model G. Valid only when NFDRSIndex is set to BI. Values = {0 to 9999}
ERC_Limit	Type: Short Integer Precision: 4	Type: Number Width: 4 Decimals: 0	No, unless NFDRSIndex = ERC	60	Energy release component for fuel model G. Applicable only when NFDRSIndex is set to ERC. Values = {0 to 9999}

Non-contiguous FMUs

You may have non-continguous FMUs, which are multi-part shapes that contain multiple polygons with just one data record in the DBF file. To reduce a multi-part FMU to a single record in the DBF, perform a GIS dissolve using the FMU_Name field (assuming that all polygons are labeled with the same FMU name). If you don't know how to do this process, contact your GIS specialist.

Batch Upload vs. Single Upload

Batch upload allows you to import a shapefile containing a single or multiple FMUs into FPA-PM at the same time using a single zipped shapefile. Single upload enables you to import only a single FMU shapefile into FPA-PM. The files may have non-contiguous FMUs. However, the uploaded shapefiles must have unique FMU Names in the FMU_Name field of the shapefile, and cannot contain FMU names that already exist in the FPA-PM database. Likewise, each uploaded shapefile must each have a unique name.

Projection Files

The projection file (*.prj) is required to upload the data to FPA-PM. You can create the projection file using any of the following tools:

• ArcCatalog
• ArcToolbox
• ArcView 3.x projection utility extension

  Your shapefile's polygon data must be in Geographic, Decimal Degree NAD83.

  If you open the projection file in Notepad®, it will look similar to this:

GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983", DATUM["D_North_American_1983", SP HEROID["GRS_1980", 6378137.0,298.257222101]], PRIMEM["Greenwich",0.0], UNIT["Degree", 0.0174532925199433]]

If this appears as one continuous line in Notepad, you can select Format >> Word Wrap to make the line fit the screen so that you don't have to scroll. The long strings of numbers will be different for your data extent.

ZIP® File Contents

The ZIP file for each shapefile must contain the following four files:

• *.shp
• *.shx
• *.dbf
• *.prj

  All four files must have the same name; e.g., myfmu.shp, myfmu.shx, myfmu.dbf, myfmu.prj.

Note: Do not include the directory structure in the zipped file. Doing so will cause an error when you try to upload it to FPA-PM.

Note: Do not include the directory structure in the zipped file. Doing so will cause an error when you try to upload it to FPA-PM.

Related Topics

• GIS Overview
• Wildland Fire Use
• Importing shapefiles into FPA-PM
• Land Management Objectives
• Constraints
• Weighting