Data & Tools
High-resolution Forest Mapping (HiForm)
HiForm is an online application for forest managers and planners to create detailed maps of forest change caused by severe weather, wildland fire, timber harvest, and insects and disease. This tool utilizes Google Earth Engine and 10-meter Sentinel-2 and 30-meter Landsat imagery with primary reliance on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to calculate change. HiForm’s cloud-based technology revolutionizes how forests can be monitored at near-real-time and over the long-term for assessing changes, from local to regional scales. The goal is to improve how we monitor forest disturbance and dynamics in the eastern US in ways that are best adapted for managers. Visit HiForm’s Mapping Workflow webpage for information on how to get started and use this free, cloud-based mapping technology. For more information, contact Steve Norman, Research Ecologist, steven.norman@usda.gov, or Bill Christie, Remote Sensing Analyst, william.m.christie@usda.gov.
Comparative Risk Assessment Framework and Tools (CRAFT)
Eastern Threat Center scientists and partners from the University of North Carolina Asheville's National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center have designed a planning framework called Comparative Risk Assessment Framework and Tools (CRAFT), a user-friendly, Web-based support system that helps natural resource managers address uncertainties inherent in land management decisions. CRAFT offers a structured, simplified approach to determine objectives and calculates risks and tradeoffs associated with different management scenarios.
Forecasts of Climate-Associated Shifts in Tree Species (ForeCASTS)
With support from the USDA Forest Service Forest Health Monitoring program, Eastern Threat Center scientists are developing maps that pinpoint locations where climate change pressures are likely to be most intense to help scientists, land managers, and policy makers target tree species for monitoring, conservation, and management activities. The provisional maps, known as Forecasts of Climate-Associated Shifts in Tree Species (ForeCASTS), depict future suitable habitat ranges for North American tree species within the United States as well as across the globe.
ForWarn is a satellite-based monitoring and assessment tool that provides a near-real-time national overview of potential forest disturbances to direct attention and resources to locations where forest behavior seems unusual or abnormal. The satellite imagery is interpreted and delivered through the web-based Forest Change Assessment Viewer, a tool that provides an 8-day coast-to-coast snapshot of the US landscape and produces geographically relevant maps. ForWarn is being developed in partnership with the Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center, NASA Stennis Space Center, US Geological Survey, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of North Carolina Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center. The tool is intended to complement and focus efforts of existing forest monitoring programs.
Landscape Dynamics Assessment Tool (LanDAT)
With funding support from the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Eastern Threat Center scientists are developing the Landscape Dynamics Assessment Tool (LanDAT) to help natural resource conservation practitioners monitor and assess impacts on changing landscapes and the ecological services and benefits they provide to people. LanDAT features a web-based map viewer that includes an annually-updated set of spatial data products as well as a website that provides a comprehensive overview of the tool and case studies of forest threats and their impacts to specific natural resources.
Template for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Management Options (TACCIMO)
The Template for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Management Options (TACCIMO) is a web-based assessment and reporting tool designed to integrate the most current climate change science with forest planning to meet the needs of a variety of users. A collaborative effort between Eastern Threat Center researchers and USDA Forest Service Southern Region planners and resource managers, TACCIMO fits within the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and can be used in land management plan revision, environmental assessments, environmental impact statements, and reasonable alternatives.
Water Supply Stress Index (WaSSI)
Eastern Threat Center scientists have developed a web-based planning tool known as the Water Supply Stress Index (WaSSI) model to help natural resource planners and managers evaluate the balances and tradeoffs between water availability and carbon sequestration, and to support informed decision making in light of changing environmental conditions. WaSSI can predict how climate, land cover, and human population change may impact water availability and carbon sequestration at the watershed level and across the lower 48 United States, Mexico, Rwanda, and Burundi.
