In 2009 Los Angeles County had one of the worst fires in its history. The California Station Fire occurred during August in Northern Los Angeles in the Angeles Nation Forest. The fire eventually burned and destroyed over 160 acres of land. While a fire of this magnitude will have dramatic affects overall for not only the environment and surrounding communities, I chose to focus on how it will affect of mudslides in the area. I included two maps one a reference map and the second a thematic map slope/relief area.
The reference map included main purpose show the range of fire and what areas in covered in that time period. The map includes major roads, relief, urban area, and major water bodies. It’s important to see that no major water bodies were in the area of the water which only served to fuel the fire. Additionally, according to new reports the area was suffering from “bone dry conditions” (Angry Fires), this along with no major water systems did not aid fire fighters in stopping the blaze. The map is also useful because is points out how close the urban areas were to the fire. Almost a complete mile of urban communities lies within the one mile buffer I added to the fire area. The massive area that was burned is what will contribute to future landslides and mudslides.
The thematic map I included has the slope/relief of the affected area of the California Fire Station fire. According to the CDC mudslides “Mudslides usually start on steep slopes and can be activated by natural disasters.” (CDC). The natural disaster in this situation is not only the fire but the backfires lit on all the hillsides in order to protect homes. Backfires are controlled burns that allow firefighters to cut off the fire from spreading in certain directions. Unfortunately, this leaves the land bear on sharp slopes and prone to future mudslides. The thematic map and reference map both shows not only that the fire did reach certain urban areas but also came close to others. Lack of vegetation on these sharper surface will serve as launching points or weak areas for mud and landslides in the winter (Gallegos), according to the Pasadena Star news that did an article on the affects of the California Station fire.
Looking at the relief and slopes of the map you can see that certain areas near the fire zone and buffer have high slopes and relief. In the winter when rain falls, it will not require much precipitation to allow debris flows to begin. This is will eventually lead to mudslides and will again endanger the areas closest to the fire. The areas with the higher relief and slope will be the areas that will need the most support and reinforcement in order to protect them from mudslides during the rainy season.
Overall, I found this lab to be the most difficult because it required not only for data to be inserted into ARCGIS but for it to all correspond in some way. Using reference and thematic maps you can analyze disasters and even prevent future episodes from occurring. Reading the CDC, Cal Fire, and FEMA websites prevention was usually their number one goal in preventing certain disasters and analysis of maps plays a big part in that.
Works Cited
UCLA Mapshare, http://gis.ats.ucla.edu//Mapshare/Default.cfm
Accessed on May 25, 2010
John Torigoe, Stephanie ChenCNN, http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/31/california.wildfires/index.html
'Angry fire' roars across 100,000 California acres
Accessed on May 25, 2010
Emma Gallegos,Station Fire provides opportunity to understand the science of mudslides, http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_14952909, Accessed on May 25, 2010
Los Angeles County Enterprise GIS, http://gis.lacounty.gov/eGIS/
Accessed on May 25, 2010
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/landslides.asp
Center for Disease and Control, Accessed on May 25, 2010
I edited the post and the most obivious mistake was no incorporating borders into my maps. Additionally, I added and deleted some information from my write up.
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