WUI fire evacuations: how national address point data helps

Longer fire seasons and expansion of communities into wildfire prone areas has led to an increased risk to life and property in the wildland urban interface (WUI). A national address point database could potentially be of value to incident commanders and emergency managers during wildfire evacuations by allowing for more precise mapping and evacuation modeling/zones, and improved information sharing.

The increased risk to life and property is exemplified in California where the Tubbs and Camp Fires recently destroyed thousands of structures and caused over 100 deaths.

When a wildfire moves towards a community, incident commanders issue protective action recommendations about whether to evacuate or shelter based on factors like wildfire speed and direction, location of at-risk population, and evacuation routes. Address point data contains both the textual address name and the georeferenced coordinates of an address. It may be the key to managing these decisions.

Address point data is successfully used in Australia to build modern wildfire evacuation systems. However, the United States does not have a complete national address point database.

Address point data in the U.S.

Address point data is developed and maintained in large part at the local level. This means that the database schema used in one county may differ from its neighbors or differ in quality and scope. This can seriously impede interoperability during events that cross jurisdictional lines.

There are currently two ongoing efforts to develop a national address point database. These projects are not complete, but they have great potential.

Applications for address point data in wildfire evacuations

WUI mapping

Address point data can improve WUI mapping through direct measurement of household density or used in combination with census block data. It would be more precise than current mapping methods and useful for wildfire evacuation planning and mitigation applications.

Wildfire evacuation warning and zoning – household level warning systems

Address point data can be used to issue tailored protective action recommendations to specific at-risk households. It could also be used with computer models, e.g., wildfire spread models, protective action trigger models, etc., and other open data initiatives such as LANDFIRE for evacuations. Address point data could also be used to facilitate a safer and more timelier re-entry process for evacuees.

Wildfire evacuation traffic simulation

Address point data would allow for much more accurate modeling of the spatial distribution of the evacuee population. Currently, evacuation modelers must invest a lot of time into collecting address point data from city/county governments. The data from these disparate sources are not always consistent and interoperable. A common, national address point database would greatly aid evacuation traffic simulations for wildfires as well as for other hazards such as hurricanes.

House loss assessment and notification

Public safety officials could deliver news to evacuees more readily about the potential impacts of a wildfire on their property. Aerial photographs from satellites, planes or drones can be used with the address point database to provide timely and accurate damage assessments at the household level.

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