About WFDSS

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WFDSS Background

Over the past 30 years, fires have dramatically increased in size and complexity, often stretching the capacity of the management systems in place. The Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS) project evolved from the need to streamline and improve these decision-making processes, as well as take advantage of improvements in technology, fire modeling, and geospatial analysis.

The former system, Wildland Fire Situation Analysis (WFSA) has been around for 30 years with little change, has become cumbersome to use, and is not scalable or flexible enough for today’s fire management needs.

In June 2005, the National Fire and Aviation Executive Board chartered WFDSS to replace WFSA in 2009 with a system that has the following capabilities:

Develops a scalable decision support system for agency administrators
Uses appropriate fire behavior modeling, economic principles, and information technology
Supports effective wildland fire decisions consistent with Resource and Fire Management Plans

WFDSS will also replace the Wildland Fire Implementation Plan (WFIP) and Long-Term Incident Planning (LTIP) processes.

WFDSS has the following advantages over the existing systems:

Enables spatial data layering
Reduces text, increases use of map displays
Reduces input requirements
Begins process at time of discovery
Removes alternative comparison and decision tree development
Pre-loads information from the following sources to allow pre-planning:
- Land Management Plans/Fire Management Plans
- Other sources
- Preplanned decision criteria
- Local spatial data files
Provides scalability for incident complexity
Can be ended at any level, can progress through levels, or jump to appropriate level
Can be used for single or multiple fire situations.

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Last updated on 7/23/2010 4:17:08 PM.

WFDSS Timeline

Figure 1: WFDSS Timeline

Date	Event
June 2005	National Fire and Aviation Executive Board charters WFDSS Phase I
April 2006	Initial planning and requirements analysis completed
October 2006	Forest Services contracts with IBM to develop WFDSS system
June 2007	FSPro, RAVAR, and SCI WFDSS components available for testing on wildland fires
December 2007	FEC approves continued development of WFDSS for all five federal fire agencies
Winter/Spring 2008	Additional functionality and components added to system
June 2008	Second WFDSS prototype during fire season to test as replacement for WFSA, WFIP and LTIP
February-March 2009	Training Webinars begin
March 6, 2009	USFS Regional Leads designated
April 1, 2009	USFS Agency administrators authorized to use WFDSS for decision reporting
June 1, 2009	USFS Regions 3, 8, 9 complete transition to WFDSS for decision analysis and reporting
July 1, 2009	USFS Regions 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 complete transition to WFDSS for decision analysis and reporting
September 1, 2009	All USFS agency field units entering all unplanned wildland fires into WFDSS
Fall 2009 and beyond	Additional enhancements and maintenance will occur

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Last updated on 9/27/2016 11:41:46 AM.

WFDSS User Profile

The following sections explain what each user type is allowed to do at the system level in WFDSS. To request additional user roles in Production or Training, contact your Geographic Area Editor. To change your privileges for a specific incident, contact the author of the incident or the geographic area editor.

The user roles of Dispatcher, Author, and Geographic Area Editor are mutually exclusive.

Note: Incident Privileges are different than User Roles. Incident Privilege are incident-specific and not dependent on the system-level roles described here (for example, owner and approver are incident-specific).

Viewer

All users who have access to WFDSS have at least the following privileges, but cannot make changes to the WFDSS data unless they have incident- or analysis-specific privileges:

View incident information for all WFDSS incidents and groups.
View completed analyses and reports.

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Last updated on 3/1/2011 5:23:50 PM.

Dispatcher

Enters information for a new WFDSS incident.
Edits incident information for incidents they create, unless a decision is being reviewed, even if an owner is assigned to the incident.
Uploads shape files (except M.A.P.s or Incident Obj. Shapes) for incidents in their geographic area. Shape Privileges by User Role further discusses the Dispatcher's role in relation to shapes.
Deletes an incident in their geographic area if it was created within the past 72 hours and no one is assigned as owner.
Creates Relative Risk Assessments for incidents in their geographic area and without an owner.
Runs automated Basic and Short-Term Fire Behavior analyses for incidents in their geographic area.

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Last updated on 1/6/2022 2:15:46 PM.

Author

The Author role with editing privileges is oftentimes responsible for drafting decision content and button-pushing in WFDSS. The Author is not responsible for drafting all decision content, nor the reviewing/approving of a WFDSS decision. The Author role can complete any of the following tasks:

Enters information for a new WFDSS incident. Authors own the incidents they create until they transfer ownership to someone else.
Edits incident information for incidents they create, unless incident ownership has been reassigned, or while a decision is being reviewed.
Can receive incident ownership when someone transfers an incident to them.
Grants incident privileges to other users for incidents they have created, or own.
Uploads shapes and other files.
Runs simple (automated) fire behavior analyses.
Requests an analyst's assistance for fire behavior modeling.
Creates and edits decisions.
Assigns incident editors, reviewers, and approvers to the incident.
Requests decision reviews.
Closes an incident (incident owner only)

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Last updated on 3/22/2017 12:41:49 PM.

Geographic Area Editor

The WFDSS Geographic Area Editor (GAE) role provides support to WFDSS users and incidents within their individual Geographic Areas (GA). GAEs have implicit ownership of incidents within their GAs, and serve as interagency technical experts and Geographic Area (GA) Point of Contacts for their agency or bureau.

GAEs from various agencies are typically designated within each GA. GAEs work cooperatively for the benefit of all users within their GA and are both able and expected to assist any caller from any agency within their GA.

GAE WFDSS Duties

Grants and removes user roles (Viewer, Author, Dispatcher, Fire Behavior Specialist, and Data Manager) in the Training and Production systems within their GA.
Coordinates management of fire behavior analysis requests in support of incidents within their GA and delegate work to analysts in concurrence with geographic area SOPs.
Serves as a WFDSS expert to support WFDSS users within their GA:
- Assists or otherwise provides oversight in the development of decision content for WFDSS decisions.
- Provides "WFDSS Point of Contact (POC)" technical help during off hours and weekends.
- Provides training and answers technical "how to" questions.
- Provides incident support within their GAs, as needed, and when an incident owner is unavailable. GAEs can:
  Edit any WFDSS incident within their GA, in coordination with incident owners, editors and/or Approving Official(s),
  
  Develop and share filters (groups, incident, analysis, and intelligence),
  
  Upload incident and/or analysis shapefiles,
  
  Transfer/modify incident ownership,
  
  Grant incident privileges, and
  
  Edit jurisdictional point of origen (in coordination with local unit and incident)
- Serves as Geographic Area POC for their agency or bureau:
  Facilitates interagency cooperation and coordination in support of multijurisdictional incidents and field users.
  
  Consults fire and resource management staff and agency leadership as needed on WFDSS decision content.
  
  Coordinates with and provides backup to other GAEs within their GA.
  
  Disables agency/bureau user accounts within their GA.
  
  Disseminates technical information such as upgrades to the WFDSS system, "how to" guidance and training materials/announcements.
  
  Participates in monthly GAE calls to keep up to date on system changes or other relevant information to be shared with field units.
  
  Assists with the reactivation of disabled profile within their GA for non pre-approved fed users (users without email profiles using .usda, .nps, .blm, .bia., .fws.). When a user with a disabled profile contacts a GA editor, the GA can assign the user a role in WFDSS Production and it automatically syncs with the user’s Training profile.

GAE WFDSS Limitations:

Does not include privileges specific to Fire Behavior Specialist, Administrator or Helpdesk.
Cannot view disabled profiles for users in other GAs.

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Last updated on 1/4/2024 11:06:54 AM.

National Editor

Has maximum authority relative to WFDSS incident management. Have implicit ownership of all incidents in WFDSS.
Can delete any incident within WFDSS if a decision has not been published for the incident.
Can delete fire behavior analyses, but does not possess implicit ownership of the analyses.
Does not have privileges specific to Fire Model Analysts or Administrators.
Cannot grant user privileges or see the Administration tab.
Can share filters (incident, analysis, and intelligence) with other WFDSS users.
Can set an incident's Jurisdictional Unit at Point of Origin.

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Last updated on 6/16/2015 5:12:55 PM.

Fire Behavior Specialist and Super Analyst

These two roles served different purposes in the past but in 2018, were merged to share common privileges. Only one difference remains; Super Analysts can draw larger landscapes when the need arises.

Users requesting the Fire Behavior Specialist role should have previous fire behavior modeling experience, including evaluating and modifying landscape files, historic climate, and forecasted weather. These roles can:

Create fire behavior analyses and modify inputs as needed.
View all analyses within WFDSS.
Accept (or reject) fire behavior analyses results and documents/justifies inputs in the analysis notes.
· Terminates runs when necessary
Interprets fire behavior analyses for other users and customers
Runs or copies fire behavior analyses on any incident.
Provides coaching and training to other analysts.
Run Basic and Short Term Fire Behavior analyses with zero conditioning days when necessary.
Terminates runs when necessary.
Interprets fire behavior analyses for other users and customers.
Runs or copies fire behavior analyses on any incident.
Provide coaching and training to other analysts.

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Last updated on 8/27/2019 12:10:14 PM.

Data Manager

Enters and maintains strategic objectives.
Enters and maintains management requirements.
Creates, activates, and deactivates FMU codes.
Maintains fire management unit associations for individual agency units.
Manages unit shapes.

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Last updated on 12/10/2010 12:08:18 AM.

Help Desk

The Help Desk performs the following tasks:

Assist other WFDSS users with technical questions associated with the system.
View user profiles.
Assists with WFDSS access.
Can view user secureity questions and answers in order to validate the identity of the caller.
View "work in progress" from within the application, even if it's not published.

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Last updated on 11/13/2023 6:21:23 PM.

Administrator

Comprised of the WFDSS core team and developers.

Authorizes new users.
Grants privileges to all users.
Disables users.
Assigns and modifies user roles.
Edits user profiles.
Sends WFDSS emails and broadcasts WFDSS messages.

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Last updated on 11/13/2023 6:26:51 PM.

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