LANDFIRE 2023 Update

The LANDFIRE 2023 Update (LF 2023) product suite represents the final step in the ongoing goal to move towards annual updates and reduced latency. LANDFIRE'S goal has been to release an annual update every year that represents one year, specifically the previous year. Similar to the LF 2022 Update, in LF 2023, disturbances from the previous year are represented in current year products. The LF 2022 Update was the first map product suite in which disturbances from the year prior are represented in current year products. Continuing the work of the annual vegetation and fuel updates, the LF 2023 Update suite provides updated layers that add to, and account for disturbance on the landscape that has occurred through October of 2023. This means the LANDFIRE team has been able to improve production efficiencies and turn around disturbances faster than ever, providing our community of users the newest data faster.

Improvements Featured in the LF 2023 Update

• The use of 4 seasonal composites in disturbance mapping, doubling LANDFIRE’s use of satellite imagery
• Mapped disturbance events in the 90km buffer area surrounding the Conterminous United States (CONUS)
• Two new types of Annual Disturbance products – Limited and Preliminary Annual Disturbance
• New fuels calibration for the Southeast GeoArea, Colorado, and Oklahoma
• An updated Operational Roads product for CONUS that incorporates National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2021
• The return of Fire Regime Group (FRG), Fire Return Interval (FRI), and Percent Fire Severity (PFS) as standalone products. The products will be applicable to LF 2016 Remap for CONUS and HI
• Updated BPS, FRG, FRI, and PFS products for AK
• An updated Fuel Characteristics Classification System (FCCS) product for all extents
• Sampled GEDI canopy height data as additional training data for the tree height model

A new methodology update for Existing Vegetation Cover (EVC), Height (EVH), and Type (EVT) products within CONUS

In the past LANDFIRE updates have used millions of rulesets developed from local and national experts across the United States to update mapped vegetation where disturbance has occurred. These rulesets considered the initial vegetation type, cover, and height and applied a transition rule using the disturbance type, severity, and length of time since the disturbance occurred to produce an updated EVT, EVC, and EVH products for a new version.

Since circa LF 2016 Remap (LF Remap), these rules have required to Remap inputs of EVT, EVC, and EVH. This created challenges for the update process because areas that had been disturbed in the few years prior to 2016 remained unchanged from that snapshot in time.

For LF 2023, LANDFIRE will map the lifeform, cover, and height of existing vegetation in areas that LANDFIRE has mapped as disturbed over the last twenty years (see the LANDFIRE Annual Disturbance product) using our machine learning methods. LANDFIRE focused on updating areas disturbed over the last 20 years since these are the areas that have most likely changed the most.