Green Infrastructure Design, a company focused on sustainable design and planning, recently obtained grant money to support the Fire Safe Council of Monterey County, a non-profit organization that focuses on promoting fire safety and awareness in the region. The grant will fund the development of a Web GIS Portal that will offer numerous benefits to the community.
The Web GIS Portal will enable users to locate and sign up for local firewise communities. It will also help communities to apply for Firewise status from the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Firewise USA program. The portal will provide a range of public geographic information system (GIS) data collected from previous GID projects carried out under the CalFire Mapping Grant initiatives in Monterey County. These projects include data from the Big Sur Fire , Fire Adaptive Big Sur, the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County (RCD) Fire Fuels Mapping Project (FFMP), the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District (MPRPD Explore!), the US Geological Survey Earth Explore, the US Department of Agriculture USDA-NRCS, the County of Monterey Web GIS Portal, the Monterey County Agricultural Web GIS Portal, and the CalFire Web GIS Portal.
The information available in the Web GIS Portal will help individuals and communities better understand fire risk in their local areas and take steps to mitigate those risks. This will include access to data on vegetation types, topography, and other relevant factors that can influence wildfire behavior. By having access to this data, individuals and communities can make informed decisions about where to live, how to protect their homes, and how to respond in case of an emergency.
The development of this Web GIS Portal will be a significant step forward for fire safety in Monterey County. It will offer numerous benefits to the community, including greater awareness of wildfire risks, improved access to information, and increased opportunities for individuals and communities to take proactive steps to reduce their risk of wildfire.