A Pilot Wildfire Risk Assessment for Texas
The purpose of the Texas Wildfire Risk Assessment (TWRA) is to provide foundational information about wildfire hazard across the geographic area. Such information supports wildfire response, regional fuel management planning, and revisions to land and resource management plans. A wildfire risk assessment is a quantitative analysis of the assets and resources across a specific landscape and how they are potentially impacted by wildfire. The TWRA analysis considers:
- likelihood of a fire burning
- the intensity of a fire if one should occur
- the exposure of assets and resources based on their locations, and
- the susceptibility of those assets and resources to wildfire.
To manage wildfire across that state, accurate wildfire risk data must be available to inform land and fire management strategies. These risk outputs can be used to aid in the planning, prioritization, and implementation of prevention and mitigation activities. In addition, the risk data can be used to support fire operations in response to wildfire incidents by identifying those assets and resources most susceptible to fire.
