As people become more accustomed to digital delivery of up-to-date information, the expectation is growing that responders and managers will communicate in this manner. Whether it be a social media feed or a .kmz file displayed in a web viewer, the story-telling power of simple geospatial tools can have a dramatic effect when presenting incident information to the public and cooperators.

Using relatively simple tools, effective maps or internet-based presentations that speak to the particular information needs of the public or media can be generated and distributed from an incident.

Examples:

For more advanced Google Earth users, a file used in a public meeting on the Wallow Fire in 2011 is available for download here.

A similar example from the 2010 fire season is currently available on Inciweb: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/article/2013/10249/

An information video was created at the View Lake Complex, 2010. It is hosted at the Lessons Learned Center video page, and was linked to from InciWeb.

An overview of the Shadow Lake Fire (2011) near Sisters, OR and brief explanation of management actions.

A news report on this use of Geospatial  technology from the 2009 fire season can be found here.  This report came from Google Earth files made available from a link off Inciweb.

A presentation designed to inform non-specialists about fire terminology can be found here (You will need Google Earth to run this)

A presentation that displays how a firing operation can be used to reduce burn intensity. A word document description is here, with the associated Google Earth file here.