by Matthew P. Thompson, Benjamin M. Gannon, Michael D. Caggiano, Christopher D. O’Connor, April Brough, Julie W. Gilbertson-Day and Joe H. Scott
Wildland fire managers are increasingly embracing risk management principles by being more anticipatory, proactive, and “engaging the fire before it starts”. A key innovation in planning is the development of potential operational delineations (PODs).
Here, we review development of a decision support tool—a POD Atlas—intended to facilitate cross-boundary, collaborative strategic wildfire planning and management by providing high-resolution information on landscape conditions, values at risk, and fire management resource needs for individual PODs. We present examples, discuss real-world use cases, and highlight opportunities for continued decision support improvement.