An Overview of LANDFIRE Products

Author

Sarah Hagen

What does LANDFIRE provide?

The LANDFIRE Program produces current, consistent, and comprehensive geospatial data sets and databases that describe vegetation, wildland fuels, and fire regimes for the entire United States, including Alaska, Hawai’i, and insular areas (Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Federated States of Micoronesia, Republic of Palau, Republic of Marshall Islands). Most LANDFIRE products are delivered as geospatial data layers with 30-meter cell resolution, although not all products are spatial layers. Read the LANDFIRE Technical Documentation to learn how LANDFIRE creates these products. Use the LANDFIRE Data Dictionary (opens a pdf) to help understand and locate LANDFIRE product information.

LANDFIRE data products by category

The following is a comprehensive list of all the datasets LANDFIRE provides in each of six categories, with links to where you can learn more about each dataset, explore attribute tables, and download data.

Vegetation

Historical Fire Regime

Fuel

Disturbance

Topographic and Reference

LANDFIRE versions

Prior to 2022, LANDFIRE updated their product suite every few years. However, beginning in 2022, LANDFIRE started providing annual product updates. It’s important to note that these annual updates only apply to pixels mapped as disturbed by LANDFIRE during the relevant disturbance period (10 or 20 previous years) for that version. You can find the data delivery schedule on the data page of the LANDFIRE Program website. LANDFIRE’s version history can be found in the Version Description table on the LANDFIRE Program website. Each version page contains detailed information about improvements or changes to methodology, along with supplemental info at the bottom of each page. LANDFIRE now supports five versions for download: two base maps and three updates. Versions not listed can be requested through the LANDFIRE Helpdesk. LANDFIRE is working to move LANDFIRE 2001 to ScienceBase as the official repository and will remove it from the website/tools.

Note

Please visit the LANDFIRE Program website for the most recent data version and the most up-to-date release schedule.

LANDFIRE data is currently available for the following extents, although not all areas have available data for each version:

  • Conterminous United States (CONUS)

  • Alaska (AK)

  • Hawaii (HI)

  • Insular Areas: Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Federated States of Micoronesia, Republic of Palau, Republic of Marshall Islands.

How data products and information may be used

LANDFIRE provides national, regional, and large landscape-scale products for landscape assessment, analysis, and management. This information supports efforts such as identification of areas with similar characteristics, prioritization exercises, modeling capacity and potential, and improving collaboration between landowners with common data sets and analytics. These products are extensively utilized by land managers for setting priorities, formulating management strategies, and devising action plans. Their applications extend beyond fire management to encompass climate change research, carbon sequestration planning, and habitat analysis. Key applications that use LANDFIRE products are the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS), Interagency Fuels Treatment Decision Support System (IFTDSS), Terrestrial Condition Assessment, and Watershed Condition Class.

Note

A note on application scale

Application scale in LANDFIRE refers to the minimum area size that the data creators aimed to represent accurately for specific applications. It’s not about detail or spatial resolution, but about the usefulness of the product when reviewing or analyzing the data for small geographies. Application scale varies across the country because ecological and mapping conditions vary across the country, e.g. mapability of vegetation, landscape fragmentation, etc. LANDFIRE provides data for the entire United States, but its application scale as delivered, out-of-the-box is large landscape, regional, and national. This means the data is accurate for large geographies but may not be precise for specific small areas within that geography. Therefore, understanding application scale is crucial when using LANDFIRE products, as it ensures the data represents the overall landscape faithfully for planning or analysis.

For more on application scale, you can read Jim Smith’s blog post on the topic.

Helpful Resources

Still have questions? LANDFIRE is here to help.