GIS applications for wildland-urban interface fire planning: A case study in Silverado Canyon, Orange County, California (California)

A comprehensive review of the literature in geography, forestry, and fire management revealed few uses of GIS in fire planning. Fire planning will benefit from the use of GIS. The Silverado pilot project for Orange County is a planning model that will be extended to other areas of fire risk at the completion of this project. Other agencies can follow this example in an effort to save lives and property. This case study effectively demonstrates that a GIS application for Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Planning is an essential tool that can clearly convey an overwhelming amount of information, originally stored on different forms of media, during a wildfire. This thesis will serve as a guide for experienced personnel on how to create a similar fire plan for their agency and provides guidelines to demonstrate to other fire agencies how to create a GIS application.