Abstract:
Maps of the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) are both pragmatic policy tools and powerful visual images with broad appeal. While the growing number of WUI maps serve the same general purpose, this paper demonstrates that WUI maps based on the same data can differ in ways related to their purpose, and discusses the use of ancillary data in modifying census data. A comparison of two methods suggests GIS methods used for mapping the WUI be tailored to specific questions. Dasymetric mapping to improve census data precision is useful but dependent on data quality, and land ownership datasets suffer problems that argue for caution in their use. No single mapping approach is “best,” and analysts must be clear about the problem addressed, the methods used, and data quality. These considerations should apply to any analysis, but are especially important to analyses of the WUI upon which public-sector decisions will be made.
