Currently, the most similar research to this fuel mapping project is the USGS Landfire project. The Landfire project is a comprehensive, nationwide vegetation mapping effort that is specifically directed at wildland fire. Specifically, the goal of the landfire project is to "...develop a consistent and accurate methodology capable of producing geospatial data vegetation conditions, fire fuels, risks, and ecosystem status at the national, regional, and local scales..."

Our research is focused primarily on fire fuels and fuel loads that can be used as inputs in NFFL fuel models commonly used by fire suppression crews across the United States. This single-focus approach was determined to be best for this research due to the limited resources and personnel available.

Comparison to Landfire

-Single Focus: This research only attempts to estimate values of NFFL fire fuel models.

-Rapid Assessment: Only one field personnel was assigned to this project. The spatial extent of data gathered per day was of maximum concern. Landfire data have a much larger amount of data per point.

-Single Scale:This research was designed around the scale of the study area; the state of Rhode Island. The Landfire project will be adaptable to a variety of scales.

Screenshot of the www.landfire.gov website. Visit them to learn more.