Browsing by Subject "Terrain"
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Item An analysis of terrain roughness: Generating a GIS application for prescribed burning(2008-05) Crawford, Matthew Allan; Fish, Ernest B.; Britton, Carlton M.; Mulligan, KevinPrescribed burning is a technique used to rejuvenate pastures by enhancing wildlife habitat, brush control, and removing old growth. The technique has become a science and has been in practice for decades to model naturally occurring fire regimes. Planning a prescribed burn is a detailed and careful formula that requires a great deal of time and preparation. This study presents a procedure that will greatly reduce the amount of time and money spent in planning a burn. Fire lines are typically located along pasture fences for prescribed burning in Texas. In rough, hilly terrain this results in fire lines traversing steep slopes and deep canyons that greatly increase expense and pose hazardous conditions for personnel. By combining the power of technology with the knowledge of a burn expert, an innovative approach to fire line location may possibly be developed, using existing programs to build a model that predicts the smoothest and most suitable path for fire lines. In order to accomplish this task, several steps were taken. First, an application was found that provides the desired algorithm to calculate a roughness surface from a digital elevation model. The roughness surface is then classified by a newly suggested classification index. An application has been developed to use the roughness surface to obtain isoline locations for the burn area. The Rocker Ranch which is located on the edge of the Llano Estacado escarpment in Borden County, Texas provided an excellent area for testing the model. The fire lines are based on the isolines which represent the smoothest route, within the designated area. This application will optimize the fire line planning process for prescribed burning by saving time and money.