Point Patterns in Forest Fires

Introduction

Do the patterns of forest fires change over time? Do forest fires occur in clusters, and do the clusters change over time? Is this information useful in fighting forest fires?

This lab exercise will try to answer these questions using spatial statistics in a geographic information system (GIS) context.

Location

Montana, United States

Time to complete the lab

Three hours

Prerequisites

An understanding of basic spatial statistics

Basic skills in the use of ArcGIS 10

Elementary understanding of the following: standard deviational ellipses (applied to point patterns), Moran's I to analyze point patterns, average nearest neighbor, and Ripley's K statistic, as well as kernel densities (to analyze clusters)

Data used in this lab

Forest fire history Montana 2005, 2009

Coordinate system: State plane Montana

Datum: North American Datum 1983

Projection: Lambert Conformal Conic

Fire history data metadata: http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/gis/thematic_data/fire_history_r1_1985_2009_poly.htm