Marini Hazard Map - Wildland Fire
This map shows the hazard of a Wildland Fire originating from two different
directions heading towards the town of Yucca Valley, California. Yucca Valley has a
population of 21,821 people as of 2021. Although it is unlikely that two wildland
fires would spread into the town at the same time, the hazard still exists. To the
South and Southeast of town, there are areas of heavily wooded forests and desert
mountains with thick dry brush covering most of the area. Yucca Valley has one
highway that goes through town West to East as well as a highway that travels
North. There are limited Fire, EMS and Police in town as most of the County
services are spread across the high desert. Wild fire can and has spread rapidly in
this area and containment can be challenging. If resources are tied up in other
Southern California fires, it can take a while to get help and it leaves it up to the
local departments. Some of the area does not have reliable cell coverage so
evacuation notices could be difficult. With limited highways, evacuation itself
would cause heavy traffic.
This program is called SARtopo by the company CALtopo. It was created for
recreational use and now is also widely used in the SAR community. I use this
mapping program to create maps for Search and Rescues. Most of my experience is
mapping the wilderness of National Parks, so it was different mapping in town. I
will continue to use SARtopo in the current job and expect to use it in future
positions as well. There are so many options as far as layers and tools within the
program. Check out the “Fire History” layer to see the history of fires in this area of
California.
