This dataset is a product of the PNW QWRA 2025. The purpose of the PNW QWRA 2025 is to provide foundational information about wildfire risk across the Pacific Northwest Region (which encompasses the states of Oregon and Washington). Analytics from the QWRA are used to guide vegetation management, fire response, and community planning at multiple scales.

A QWRA considers several different components, each resolved spatially across the region, including:

• likelihood of a fire burning,

• the intensity of a fire if one should occur,

• the exposure of assets and resources based on their locations, and

• the susceptibility of those assets and resources

Data users are encouraged to refer to the PNW QWRA 2023 Methods Report for full details: https://oe.oregonexplorer.info/externalcontent/wildfire/PNW_QWRA_2023Methods.pdf

The PNW QWRA 2025 evaluated risk to eight HVRAs: People and Property, Infrastructure, Drinking Water, Timber, Ecological Integrity, Wildlife Habitat, Agriculture, and Recreation. This data layer, Infrastructure eNVC, represents risk integrated across all infrastructure sub-HVRAs. The infrastructure HVRA is intended to evaluate wildfire risk to critical infrastructure, namely energy, communication, transportation infrastructure, as well as other essential facilities. Sub-HVRAs included:

1. High Voltage Electric Transmission Lines

2. Low Voltage Electric Transmission Lines

3. Electric Substations

4. Oil and Gas Wells

5. Powerplants

6. Interstates

7. Highways

8. Railroads

9. Essential Facilities

10. Communication Sites

Risk is estimated within the QWRA framework by integrating wildfire hazard with HVRA susceptibility (Scott et al., 2013). Risk is calculated for each pixel separately based on the fire hazard data for that pixel and based on which HVRAs are present. Fire impacts to each HVRA are characterized by the estimated change in value, a unitless approximation of whether the HVRA is beneficially or adversely affected by fire and to what magnitude. Accordingly, risk is expressed as net value change (NVC). Net value change is first calculated for all pixels across a sub-HVRA. The NVC for each HVRA is then calculated by summing the NVC of all its constituent sub-HVRAs. Positive values indicate that wildfire is likely to have beneficial impacts on the HVRA while negative values indicate that the net outcomes are likely to be adverse. Risk is calculated based on a very wide range of plausible weather conditions, much wider than the range under which we have typically experienced large fires in the past. The specific conditions under which a wildfire occurs will determine the outcomes. When interpreting QWRA risk results, bear in mind that fire will not always be beneficial in areas with positive NVC values and, likewise, it may be possible to experience beneficial fire in areas with negative NVC values.

Primary Data Contact: Ian Rickert, Regional Fire Planner, Forest Service R6/R10, ian.rickert@usda.gov

Citations:

Scott, J.H., Thompson, M.P., Calkin, D.E., 2013. A wildfire risk assessment framework for land and resource management (No. RMRS-GTR-315). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Ft. Collins, CO. https://doi.org/10.2737/RMRS-GTR-315

Finney, M.A., McHugh, C.W., Grenfell, I.C., Riley, K.L., Short, K.C., 2011. A simulation of probabilistic wildfire risk components for the continental United States. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 25, 973–1000. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-011-0462-z