FSH 5109.19 - FIRE MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS AND PLANNING HANDBOOK 1/83 WO AMENDMENT 1 CHAPTER 80 - FIREPLAN USERS MANUAL 81 - SYSTEM DESCRIPTION. FIREPLAN is a set of computer programs developed to provide the analytical capabilities specified in chapter 40. The system is maintained by the Computer System Support Group, Aviation and Fire Management Staff, Washington Office, Boise Interagency Fire Center. Telephone contact is (FTS) 554-9563; (Commercial) 208+334-9563. Forest users should contact their Regional Office for assistance before calling the support group directly. FIREPLAN will be used by fire management planners at State, Regional, and Forest levels. FIREPLAN programs are available on the UNIVAC 1100/84 at the Fort Collins Computer Center. Programs are written in standard ASCII FORTRAN language. All programs are to be run in batch mode, except /FPL-IAA/ which was written as an interactive program. 82 - APPLICATION 82.1 - System Overview. FIREPLAN is made up of a series of component programs. Two other national systems are also used in conjunction with the FIREPLAN programs. They are the National Fire Occurrence Data Library (NFODL) and the National Fire Weather Data Library (FIREDATALIB). Four of the FIREPLAN programs are run in what is referred to as analysis level I to define the current fire management situation. Two are used in analysis level 2 to evaluate suppression programs. The sixth program, /FPL-FREQ/, is used in both analysis levels. The programs are elements of the FPL-PROGRAMS file that has the qualifier FPL-FIREPLAN. The following narrative will explain the programs and the role each plays in the two analyses. These programs have been written to be run in the sequence presented. Data files are often resorted in preparation for the next analysis step. If a program is skipped, the next program in the sequence may not run because the data presentation is not in the expected format. 82.11 - File Naming Convention. Qualifiers for the online mass storage files created by the programs are FPLRRFF where RR is the Forest Service Region (01-10) and FF is the Regional Forest number. It is also suggested that FPLRRFF be used for the Project-ID Entry on the @RUN control card in program runstreams. 82.12 - Program Descriptions 82.12a - NFODL*PROGRAMS.NFO-RETRIEVE. This is used to retrieve historical fire occurrence data from the National Fire occurrence Data Library. Since planning is done on a Forest basis, /NFO-RETRIEVE/will typically be used to extract fire report data for a single Forest. Outputs from /NFO-RETRIEVE/are: 1. Table of the number of fires and acres burned for each Forest and year. 2. A mass storage data file, FPLRRFF*REPORTS-RETR, containing the data. The record format of this file is presented in exhibit 1. Time of discovery (rounded to the nearest clock hour) and NFDRS slope class codes are derived by program /NFO-RETRIEVE/. The Form FS-5100-29, Slope Class Codes, are categorized into NFDRS slope classes as follows: Form FS-5100-29 Codes NFDRS Slope Class 0-2 1 3 2 4-5 3 6-7 4 8-9 5 Information in columns 61 thru 78 of the passing file are added to the file via program /FPL-AREA/. Information in column 79 is added to the file by program /FPL-LEVEL1/. FPLRRFF*REPORTS-RETR is an input file to program /FPL-AREA/. Exhibit 1 FIRE REPORT PASSING FILE FORMAT FOR FIREPLAN COLUMNS DESCRIPTION FORMAT 1-4 Reporting Forest Code I4 5-8 Supervisor's Office Fire Number I4 9-10 Year (701970) I2 11-12 Month (1=January) I2 13-14 Day of Month I2 15-16 Time of Discovery (Nearest Clock Hour) I2 17-26 Location A10 27 Statistical Cause I1 28-29 General Cause I2 30-31 Specific Cause I2 32 Class of People I1 33 Fire Size Class (1A, 2B, 3C, ETC) I1 34-40 Total Area Burned (Acres) I7 41 Cost Class I1 42-43 Cover Type at Origin I2 44-49 Fuel Type at Origin I6 50-55 Prevailing Fuel Type I6 56 Form FS-5100-29, Slope Class I1 57 NFDRS Slope Class I1 58 Converted Aspect Code A1 (North, South, East, West) 59 Elevation Class I1 60 Topography Code I1 61-65 Capability or Other Area Identifier A5 66-71 Fire Weather Station Number I6 72 First NFDRS Fuel Model A1 73-74 Percent Area Represented by First Fuel Model I2 75 Second NFDRS Fuel Model A1 76-77 Percent Area Represented by Second Fuel Model I2 78 Herbaceous Vegetation Type A1 (A=Annual, P=Perennial) 79 Fire Intensity Level I1 82.12b - FPL-FIREPLAN*FPL-PROGRAMS.FPL-LISTFIRE. This program generates the following summaries of the historical fire report data. 1. Table of the number of fires and acres burned by fire size class for each Forest and year. 2. Listing of the retrieved data sorted by date. 3. Listing of the retrieved data sorted by location. 82.12c - FIREDATALIB*PROGRAMS.LISTFILES, INVNN-NN, and GETDATA2. These programs are not components of the FIREPLAN system, but are used in the process to locate and extract data from the National Fire Weather Library. The Forest's weather data set is put in a mass storage file, FPLRRFF*GETDATA2-WX. The file is arranged by ascending weather station number, then by date. FPLRRFF*GETDATA2-WX is an input file to program /FPL-MOIST/. 82.12d - FPL-FIREPLAN*FPL-PROGRAMS.FPL-MOIST. This program operates on the data in FPLRRFF*GETDATA2-WX. /FPL-MOIST/ consists essentially of the fuel moisture prediction subroutines developed for the NFDRS. The output is a mass storage file containing daily values of wind and calculations of the 1-, 10-, 100-, 1,000-hour timelag fuel moistures, shrub moisture, and the X1000 variable (used in /FPL-LEVEL1/ and /FPL-LEVEL2/ to predict the moisture content of herbaceous plants). This file is called FPLRRFF*FUEL-MOIST. It also contains user-supplied descriptors of the weather station sites needed by /FPL-LEVEL1/ and /FPL-LEVEL2/ to allow 'site specific' adjustments to be made to the fuel moistures. In FPLRRFF*FUEL-MOIST the records must be arranged in ascending order by weather station number. 82.12e - FPL-FIREPLAN*FPL-PROGRAMS.FPL-AREA. This program is used to insert user assigned values into the geographic area, weather station, and fuel model fields (cols. 61-78) of the fire report passing file, FPLRRFF*REPORTS-RETR. This new file is called FPLRRFF*REPORTS-AREA. It is an input file to program /FPL-LEVEL1/. 82.12f - FPL-FIREPLAN*FPL-PROGRAMS.FPL-LEVEL1. This program develops the fire intensity level. It does this by looking at each fire report (from FPLRRFF*REPORTS-AREA) getting the slope class, fuel model information, weather station number, certain information about the fire, and time of discovery. It then looks through FPLRRFF*FUEL-MOIST to find the wind and the set of fuel moistures for the weather station and date. In /FPL-LEVEL1/ and /FPL-LEVEL2/ winds less than 10 MPH are all treated as 6 MPH to reduce the noise. Next, the site descriptors of the weather station and fire location are used to adjust the fuel moistures to better represent what the values were at the fire location at discovery time. These adjusted fuel moistures, along with the NFDRS slope class are used to make a prediction of flame length. The intensity levels correspond to flame lengths as follows: Flame length (Ft) Fire intensity level 0-2 1 2-4 2 4-6 3 6-8 4 8-12 5 12+ 6 The computed intensity level is added to the record of that particular fire in a copy of FPLRRFF*REPORTS-AREA called FPLRRFF*REPORTS-LEV1. A set of fuel moistures may not exist for the date and weather station specified on the fire record, because a weather observation is not available. When this happens, /FPL-LEVEL1/ adds that fire to a list that is printed at the end of the run. /FPL-LEVEL1/ assigns an intensity level 1 to all unmatched class A fires, but the remainder of the unmatched fires are left for the user to deal with. The user is expected to add subjectively derived intensity levels to the remaining unmatched fires. For this, the text editor is used to modify the specific fire report records in FPLRRFF*REPORTS-LEV1. When corrected, FPLRRFF*REPORTS-LEV1 is ready to be operated on by /FPL-SORT/. 82.12g - FPL-FIREPLAN*FPL-PROGRAMS.FPL-SORT. This program operates on FPLRRFF*REPORTS-LEV1 to ensure that the fire report records are chronologically ordered. The sorted file, FPLRRFF*REPORTS-SORT is used by /FPL-FREQ/ and /FPL-LEVEL2/. /FPL-SORT/ is run after the operation with the text editor just in case the records are inadvertently reordered. 82.12h - FPL-FIREPLAN*FPL-PROGRAMS.FPL-FREQ. This program operates on the fire report records that most of the work to this point has been directed at setting up. /FPL-FREQ/ provides the summaries needed in analysis level 1 to define the existing wildfire management situation for the geographic area to which the individual fire data has been assigned, or aggregations thereof. In analysis level 2 /FPL-FREQ/ is used to define the existing wildfire management problem for fire management analysis zones set up in an alternative Forest prescription. The information generated by /FPL-FREQ/ in analysis level 2 is the principal input to the prevention planning process. These outputs consist of summaries of annual averages of acres burned and numbers of fires by fire intensity level for various causes and groupings of causes. 82.12i - FPL-FIREPLAN*FPL-PROGRAMS.FPL-LEVEL2. This program works on the FPLRRFF*FUEL-MOIST or FPLRRFF*MOIST-NNNNN and FPLRRFF*REPORTS-SORT files to produce cumulative frequencies of predicted rates of spread conditional on fire intensity level. The program works similarly to /FPL-LEVEL1/ using descriptors of representative fire sites and weather stations to "adjust" fuel moistures, and user-specified fuels and slope parameters to make rate of spread and flame-length predictions. The rate of spread distributions conditional on fire intensity level are made up of values computed for all historical fire days occurring on the Forest as if fires occurred on all those days in that FMAZ. If just the fire days actually experienced in the FMAZ were considered, there would not be enough cases to produce a smooth, stable distribution. FPLRRFF*MOIST-NNNNN is a file of fuel moistures for management area NNNNN derived from FPLRRFF*FUEL-MOIST (sec. 83.95). Dual fuel models can be used. If so, the printed rates of spread are weighted averages of those calculated for each fuel model. The intensity level is derived from the flame length calculated for the more intense of the two models. The wind-reduction factor used for both rate of spread calculations is the one that reflects the greater degree of sheltering. 82.12j - FPL-FIREPLAN*FPL-PROGRAMS.FPL-IAA. This program must be run for each option, for each FMAZ. It models the effect of a proposed fire management program by estimating final sizes of simulated fires burning at as many as 6 selected locations in each FMAZ and calculates the expected annual area burned by intensity level. /FPL-IAA/ will calculate the final size of each simulated fire contained within a user specified modeling limit of up to 300 acres and/or 8 hours after discovery. Fires not contained within these limits are identified as 'escapes' and final sizes are determined through a gaming process; with one exception, all data for a run are user-supplied. (A run consists of evaluating the "attack" on fires at two rates of spread for as many as 6 intensity levels at a single location.) The one exception is the airtanker production rate (chains of line/100 gallons dropped). Since this rate is sensitive to fire intensity, rate of spread, and the fuel model, it is calculated by the program for each intensity level, using an algorithm developed from a table of airtanker production rates. For each FMAZ /FPL-IAA/ weights the final size of each simulated fire contained by the expected frequency per year (from the particular prevention option) to calculate the expected average acres burned per year by fire size class and fire intensity level. The results are weighted 0.8 for fires burning at the 50th percentile rate of spread and 0.2 for the fires burning at the 90th. For the simulation, the FPL-IAA module follows these rules: 1. The earliest possible fire containment is attempted; all units authorized are utilized up to the time of control. 2. The initial rate of perimeter increase is lower than the subsequent steady-state rate to better approximate the buildup that actually occurs. 3. If an airtanker is the first unit to arrive, and no other force arrives within 60 minutes at intensity class 1 and 30 minutes at intensity class 2 and greater, the drop has no effect. 4. The effectiveness of an airtanker decreases with increasing rate of spread; at 40 chains per hour, airtanker effectiveness reaches 0. 83 - COMPONENT PROGRAMS OF FIREPLAN 83.1 - NFODL*PROGRAMS.NFO-RETRIEVE. This program is designed for a batch mode of operation and cannot be executed in demand (interactive) mode. Any attempt to operate this program in demand mode will result in an error message and program termination. 83.11 - Lead Cards. Three 'TYPE' cards are used (ex. 1). 1. Usage Card. The usage card specifies the format of the created mass storage data file containing the retrieved fire occurrence data. This card is of the form: USAGE FPL The entry 'FPL' instructs program retrieve to construct a data file in a format compatible for use with the national fire management analysis and planning system. 2. Region Card. The Region card identifies the Forest Service region number and years of data to be retrieved. If the year fields are left blank, then all years of data will be retrieved. Three separation characters are used to identify the years of data to extract one of the following: a. A Blank b. A Comma c. Hyphen If the years are specified, they must be listed in ascending order. A blank following the last specified year signals the end of the year fields. For example, REGION 06 1970 FOREST 01 Implies that only data for 1970 in Region 6, Forest 1, will be retrieved. A comma is used to separate individual years or groups of years. For example, REGION 06 1970,1975,1978 FOREST 01 Means that data for 1970, 1975, and 1978 in Region 6, Forest 1, will be extracted. A hyphen implies a range of years. For example, REGION 06 1970-1974,1977-1979 FOREST 01 Allows the user to retrieve data in Region 6, Forest 1, for the years 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, and 1979. 3. Forest Card. The Forest card defines the Forest number and years (optional--if the user desires a set of data for years different than those entered on the Region card) of data to be retrieved. If the year fields are left blank, those years listed on the Region card are implied. If the year fields are specified, they will override the years specified on the Region card, but only for the identified Forest. Guidelines for specifying the years of data to extract are the same as described for the Region card. The Forest card must follow its associated Region card. More than one Forest data may be retrieved; however, the same Forest number cannot be repeated in the run. 4. Sample lead card deck. To extract the fire records for 1970 through 1978 for Forest 06 (Mt. Hood) of Region 06. 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890 USAGE FPL REGION 06 1970-1978 FOREST 06 Exhibit 1 LEAD CARD SPECIFICATIONS, PROGRAM /NFODL*PROGRAMS.NFO-RETRIEVE/ Retrieval Begin End Data Type Card Col. Col. Description and Footnotes USAGE 1 5 Enter 'USAGE Alpha(A5) 7 9 Enter 'FPL' Alpha(A3) REGION 1 6 Enter 'REGION' Alpha(A6) 8 9 USFS Region Number Numeric(I2) 1/ 11 14 First Year Field Numeric(I4) 2/ 15 15 " Separation Char. Alpha(A1) 16 19 Second Year Field Numeric(I4) 20 20 " Separation Char. Alpha(A1) - - - 76 79 Last Year Field Numeric(I4) 80 80 " Separation Char. Alpha(A1) FOREST 1 6 Enter 'FOREST' Alpha(A6) 8 9 USFS Forest Number Numeric(I2) 1/ 11 14 First Year Field Numeric(I4) 3/ 15 15 " Separation Char. Alpha(A1) 16 19 Second Year Field Numeric(I4) 20 20 " Separation Char. Alpha(A1) - - - - - - 76 79 Last Year Field Numeric(I4) 80 80 " Separation Char. Alpha(A1) 1/ Right justify. 2/ Optional with default implying all years of record. 3/ Optional and used to override years on Region card. 83.12 - Outputs. Printed output generated by program /NFO-RETRIEVE/ consists of: 1. Page heading including date, time, and page number and an image of the input. If input errors are detected, appropriate diagnostic messages are printed. 2. Runstream for accessing the NFODL system. 3. Table of the number of fires and acres burned for each forest and year retrieved (ex. 1). 4. The qualifier and filename of the mass storage data file housing the retrieved data. The qualifier and filename is of the form: FPLRRFF*REPORTS-RETR. Where RR is a two-digit region number and FF is a two-digit Forest number. Data files are available for 6 calender days from the time of initial creation. Retention of any file for a longer time period requires the use of the @SAVE processor. Items 2 through 4 result only if input errors are not detected. Exhibit 1 Summary Record Count of Fires by Year /NFO-RETRIEVE/ HISTORICAL FIRE OCCURRENCE SUMMARY Admin. No. of Acres Region Forest Year Fires Burned 5 16 1970 103 561 5 16 1972 175 1442 5 16 1973 172 17938 5 16 1974 134 163 5 16 1975 86 314 5 16 1976 149 76 5 16 1977 98 880 5 16 1978 138 136 83.13 - Diagnostics. Program NFO-RETRIEVE generates diagnostic messages for two areas of program operation: 1. Retrieval cards. 2. Dynamic mass storage data file creation. The program scans all user-supplied input for errors before any fire occurrence data is retrieved. An image of each input record is echoed back to the output device. If an error is detected, a diagnostic message is printed and the next record is scanned. At the end of input error scanning, if any errors were encountered, a summary message indicating the total number of errors is printed and job processing is terminated. Program /NFO-RETRIEVE/ will not begin actual data retrieval until all user-supplied input is error-free. Errors related to creation of mass storage data files are the result of the user trying to retrieve fire occurrence data for a region and forest for which a data file already exists. The user must examine the existing file and then decide whether or not to recreate it. If the user decides to recreate the file by executing program /NFO-RETRIEVE/, then the existing file must be deleted beforehand. **** FATAL ERROR 1 -- USAGE MUST BE FIRST CARD OF INPUT DATA. Action: Usage card is missing or out of sequence--Usage card must precede the region card. **** FATAL ERROR 2 -- ,,,,,, IS AN INVALID CARD TYPE. Action: Valid card types are usage, Region, and Forest -- check spelling and if entry is in proper fields. **** FATAL ERROR 3 -- NOT USED. **** FATAL ERROR 4 -- FOREST TYPE CARD MUST FOLLOW THE PREVIOUS REGION CARD. Action: Forest card is missing or there exists two consecutive Region cards -- at least one Forest card must precede a Region card. ****FATAL ERROR 5 -- ,, IS AN INVALID REGION NUMBER. Action: Valid Region number are 1-6 and 8-10. Check if region number is in proper fields. **** FATAL ERROR 6 -- FOREST 99 INDICATES ALL FORESTS FOR THE REGION. NO OTHER FOREST TYPE CARDS ALLOWED. Action: Either the first Forest card is in error (that is, Forest 99 is not desired) or the second Forest card must be removed since all Forests for the Region were requested on the previous Forest card. **** FATAL ERROR 7 -- FOREST ,, HAS ALREADY BEEN SPECIFIED. Action: Duplicate requests for the same Forest are not permitted. Remove the duplicate Forest card. **** FATAL ERROR 8 -- ,, IS AN INVALID FOREST IN REGION ,,. Action: Check if Forest number is in proper field on Forest card -- also verify that the requested Forest number is valid for the region. **** FATAL ERROR 9 -- Not used. **** FATAL ERROR 10 -- Not used. **** FATAL ERROR 11 -- YEAR ,,,, IN YEAR FIELD ,, MUST BE GREATER THAN THE YEAR ,,,, IN YEAR FIELD ,, . Action: The years specified on the card in error must be in ascending order. Also, the specified years must not be equal -- verify that the years are in the appropriate fields. **** FATAL ERROR 12 -- A BLANK FIELD SEPARATOR WAS ENCOUNTERED, HOWEVER, A CONFLICT DEVELOPED WHEN YEAR FIELD ,, WAS NOT BLANK. Action: One or more of the year separator fields contains a character -- either the year following the separator field in error is missing or the separator field in error must be blank. **** FATAL ERROR 13 -- YEAR ,,,, IN YEAR FIELD ,, IS OUTSIDE ALLOWABLE RANGE (1970-YY). YY CURRENT YEAR -1. Action: Check if entry is in proper fields -- the year must not exceed the current year. **** FATAL ERROR 14 -- THE FIELD SEPARATOR , IS INVALID. Action: Valid field separator characters are blank, hyphen, or comma -- check if separator is in proper field. **** FATAL ERROR 15 -- ,,,,,,,, IS AN INVALID OPTION. Action: Valid operation is -- check if entry is in appropriate fields and for correct spelling. **** FATAL ERROR 16 -- THE ABOVE CARD CONTAINS INVALID CHARACTERS IN A NUMERIC ONLY FIELD. Action: Check if data other than 0-9 are in fields which are designated numeric only -- (See National Fire Occurence Program (NFO) User's Manual). Also, check if entries are in proper fields. **** FATAL ERROR 17 -- TAPE CONTAINING THE HISTORICAL FIRE OCCURRENCE DATA FOR REGION ,, IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE (REFER TO USERS MANUAL). RUN TERMINATED. Action: Fire occurrence data tape for this Region is being updated--call Computer Systems Support Staff-BIFC, for further information. **** FATAL ERROR 18 -- RUNSTREAM FILE FAILURE (REFER TO USERS MANUAL). Action: Report this error to Computer System Support Staff-BIFC. Be sure that a copy of the runstream causing this error is available for review by others. **** INPUT ERRORS WERE DETECTED. CORRECT AND RESUBMIT THE RUN. Action: All input errors must be corrected before fire occurrence data can be retrieved from the data library. **** CAUTION **** ,,,, DATA ARE NOT AVAILABLE FOR FOREST ,, IN REGION ,,. THIS YEAR IS NOT REPRESENTED IN SUBSEQUENT ANALYSIS. Action: Questions regarding data availability should be addressed to Computer Systems Support Staff-BIFC. **** NO FIRE RECORDS FOUND **** Action: Report this error to Computer Systems Support Staff-BIFC. Be sure that a copy of the runstream generating this message is available for review. If an error is detected, the remaining lead cards are scanned and an error summary message is generated. The file FPLRRFF *REPORTS-RETR is created only when there has been a successful run of program /NFO-RETRIEVE/. 83.14 - Run/Lead Card Decks @RUN,P RUN-ID,ACCT-NO,FPLRRFF,5,100 @ASG,A NFODL*PROGRAMS. @XQT NFODL*PROGRAMS.NFO-RETRIEVE USAGE FPL REGION 06 FOREST 01 @EOF @FIN FILE CREATED: FPLRRFF*REPORTS-RETR. FILE USED BY FPL-FIREPLAN*FPL-PROGRAMS.FPL-AREA AND FPL-FIREPLAN*FPL-PROGRAMS.FPL-LISTFIRE.