To provide a spatially detailed national assessment of the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) and WUI change between 1990 and 2020 across the coterminous U.S. to support wildland fire research, policy and management, and inquiries into the effects of housing growth on the environment.
The Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) is the area where houses meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland vegetation. This makes the WUI a focal area for human-environment conflicts such as wildland fires, habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and biodiversity decline. Using geographic information systems (GIS), we integrated U.S. Census and USGS National Land Cover Data, to map the Federal Register definition of WUI (Federal Register 66:751, 2001). These data are useful within a GIS for mapping and analysis at national, state, and local levels.
There are no credits for this item.
None. Acknowledgment of the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station in products, presentations, and publications utilizing these data would be appreciated.
There is no extent for this item.
There is no scale range for this item.
1990, 2000, 2010, 2020
None. Acknowledgment of the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station in products, presentations, and publications utilizing these data would be appreciated.
Topology maintained by ESRI ArcGIS Pro 3.0.0. All fuzzy tolerances during processing were set to 0.00000001 to prevent data loss.
Data is for the conterminous United States only (lower 48 states and Disrict of Columbia). No data was generated for Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories.
Step 1: Created nationwide map of "protected areas with no housing units", pulled from the PAD-US (CBI Edition) version 2.1, including all federal, state, regional, and local government owned lands. Intersected these protected areas with U.S. block level housing change 1990-2020 dataset and moved housing units out of protected areas into neighboring privately owned blocks with the same block ID (called public land adjustment or PLA). If the same block ID had no private areas then houses remained within the protected lands boundary (no adjustment). Corrected topological errors and removed sliver polygons from public-land adjusted housing density dataset.
Step 2: Integrated U.S. block level housing change 1990-2020 dataset (public land adjusted) with the 2019 National Land Cover Dataset NLCD (years 2001, 2011, and 2019), and the 1992/2001 Retrofit Change Product (1992 values only) using ArcGIS Tabulate Area command. Calculated wildland vegetation % for 4 decades (1990, 2000, 2010, 2020), with wildland vegetation defined as sum of relative percentages of land cover classes for forests, grasslands, and wetlands.
Step 3: Assigned 1990 Intermix WUI classes to all polygons with > 50% wildland vegetation in 1990 and minimum 6.177635 housing units / square km in 1990. Assigned 2000 Intermix WUI classes to all polygons with > 50% wildland vegetation in 2000 and minimum 6.177635 housing units / square km in 2000. Assigned 2010 Intermix WUI classes to all polygons with > 50% wildland vegetation in 2010 and minimum 6.177635 housing units / square km in 2010. Assigned 2020 Intermix WUI classes to all polygons with > 50% wildland vegetation in 2020 and minimum 6.177635 housing units / square km in 2020.
Step 4: Selected all block housing polygons with >= 75% wildland vegetation in 2020 and dissolved into larger contiguous areas. Buffered areas > 500 hectares by 2,414 m (1.5 miles) to identify potential interface WUI areas. Unioned 2020 buffers with integrated block housing polygons and assigned Interface WUI classes to all polygons falling inside vegetation buffers and minimum 6.177635 housing units / square km (ignoring pre-existing Intermix WUI areas) for all 4 decades 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020.
PAD-US (CBI Edition) Version 2.1 is a comprehensive geospatial data set of United States protected areas, including detailed information on land ownership, management and conservation status.
Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) 2019. NLCD Land Cover (CONUS) All Years. Product provided landcover information for identifying forest, grassland, and wetland areas (wildland vegetation) for 2000, 2010, 2020 WUI classification.
U.S. Census TIGER 2020 block polygons with associated 2020, 2010, 2000, and 1990 housing density. 2020 Census Block housing densities obtained from Summary File 1 and 1990, 2000, 2010 housing densities allocated from Census Bureau 1990-2000, 2000-2010, and 2010-2020 Block Relationship Files.
Dataset created by SILVIS Lab by allocating 1990, 2000, and 2010 housing units to 2210 TIGER block geography using Block Relationship Files. See metadata for the U.S. Block Housing Change 1990 - 2010 dataset on the SILVIS website for more details.
Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) 1992/2001 Retrofit Land Cover Change Product. Provided landcover information for identifying forest, grassland, and wetland areas (wildland vegetation) for 1990 WUI classification.
polygon
silvis
Internal feature number.
Esri
Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
Feature geometry.
Esri
Coordinates defining the features.
A unique number assigned to Census Blocks concatenated from State, County, Tract, and Block, and Water fields from US Census TIGER. The Census Bureau defines a block as the smallest geographic area for which the Bureau of the Census collects and tabulates decennial census data, [and] are formed by streets, roads, railroads, streams and other bodies of water, other visible and cultural features, and the legal boundaries shown on Census Bureau maps (US Census Bureau).
U.S. Census Bureau
Flag if polygon is a water body using 2020 TIGER water bodies (1=water)
U.S. Census Bureau
% of block area that is water
U.S. Census Bureau
2020 population
U.S. Census Bureau
2020 total housing units
U.S. Census Bureau
2020 occupied housing units
U.S. Census Bureau
2020 vacant housing units
U.S. Census Bureau
2020 population density (persons / square km)
U.S. Census Bureau
2020 total housing density (units / square km)
U.S. Census Bureau
2020 occupied housing density (units / square km)
U.S. Census Bureau
2020 vacant housing density (units / square km)
U.S. Census Bureau
1990 total housing units (allocated)
SILVIS Lab
1990 housing density (units / square km)
SILVIS Lab
2000 total housing units (allocated)
SILVIS Lab
2000 total housing density (units / square km)
SILVIS Lab
2010 total housing units (allocated)
SILVIS Lab
2010 housing density (units / square km)
SILVIS Lab
2 letter state abbreviation
SILVIS lab
Flag if polygon is a protected area (1=public land)
SILVIS lab
Wildland Vegetation % in 1992 where wildland vegetation = (forests + grasslands + wetlands)
SILVIS Lab
Wildland Vegetation % in 2001 where wildland vegetation = (forests + grasslands + wetlands)
SILVIS Lab
Wildland Vegetation % in 2011 where wildland vegetation = (forests + grasslands + wetlands)
SILVIS Lab
Wildland Vegetation % in 2019 where wildland vegetation = (forests + grasslands + wetlands)
SILVIS Lab
Flag designating WUI (1=intermix; 2=interface) vs. non-WUI (0) areas in 1990
SILIVS Lab
1990 Wildland Urban Interface class (see enumerated domains for WUICLASS2020)
SILVIS Lab
Flag designating WUI (1=intermix; 2=interface) vs. non-WUI (0) areas in 2000
SILVIS Lab
2000 Wildland Urban Interface class (see enumerated domains for WUICLASS2020)
SILVIS Lab
Flag designating WUI (1=intermix; 2=interface) vs. non-WUI (0) areas in 2010
SILVIS Lab
2010 Wildland Urban Interface class (see enumerated domains for WUICLASS2020)
SILVIS Lab
Flag designating WUI (1=intermix; 2=interface) vs. non-WUI (0) areas in 2020
SILVIS Lab
2010 Wildland Urban Interface class (see enumerated domains)
SILVIS Lab
flag (1=inside, 0=outside) for polygons within potential interface buffers (2.14 km around dense vegetation areas >= 75% wildland vegetation and > 500 hectares in 2020)
SILVIS Lab
Length of feature in internal units.
Esri
Positive real numbers that are automatically generated.
Area of feature in internal units squared.
Esri
Positive real numbers that are automatically generated.
U.S. County Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) code.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Spatial objects (features) do not model any real world entities. Spatial objects (features) can be thought of as uniform areas of housing density and landcover, which have been assigned a Wildland Urban Interface classification. Items pertaining to National Land Cover Data (NLCD) make use of the following classification: <https://www.mrlc.gov/data/legends/national-land-cover-database-class-legend-and-description>
No warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the U.S. Forest Service or the University of Wisconsin-Madison regarding the use of these data, nor does the act of distribution constitute any such warranty.