NWCG data standards provide a specification that enables the common usage of data across wildland fire information systems.
A data standard consists of three parts:
The NWCG Data Administration Working Group has created or proposed the following data standards:
| Status | Name | Description |
| pending | Acres Controlled | This data standard provides a standard format for the reported size, in acres, of a fire at the time the fire was declared under control. |
| final | Country Code | This standard adopts the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) two-letter country codes. [Last updated: October 2002] |
| final | Date | This data standard specifies a standard format for calendar date. (YYYY/MM/DD) [Last updated: September 2002] |
| final | Employment Category | The type of employment appointment or agreement under which a person is hired. [Last updated: May 2004] |
| final | Event Kind & Category | This data standard specifies general, high-level codes and descriptions
to be used in categorizing the types of incidents and planned events to
which the interagency wildland fire community responds. [Last updated: February 2005] |
| pending | Fire Name | This data standard provides a standard format for storing the name of a fire. |
| pending | Fire Number | This data standard provides a standard format for storing the number assigned to a fire. |
| pending | Fire Year | This data standard provides a standard format for storing the calendar year of a fire's origin. |
| final | FireCode | This data standard specifies the standard format and rules for FireCode, a code used within the interagency wildland fire community to track and compile cost information for emergency fire suppression expenditures (e.g. K14B). The FireCode is incorporated into each agency's accounting code structure. [Last updated: May 2005] |
| final | Frequency Use Designator | This data standard provides a standard list of designators for the kind of communications that will occur on an assigned radio frequency. (E.g., Command, Tactical, UHF Link, Air-to-Ground FM Tactical, etc.) [Last updated: March 2004] |
| final | Geographic Area | This data standard provides a code and name for each of the wildland fire
geographic areas. (e.g. SA = Southern Area) [Last updated: February 2006] |
| final | Geographic Area Coordination Center | This data standard provides a code and name for each of the wildland fire
geographic area coordination centers. (e.g. OSCC = Southern California Operations
Coordination Center) [Last updated: February 2006] |
| final | Geographic Coordinating Area | This data standard provides a code and name for each of the wildland fire geographic coordinating areas. (e.g. SWA = Southwest Coordinating Area) [Last updated: February 2006] |
| final | GIS Data Layer - Daily Fire Perimeter | This standard provides the standard template for storage of fire perimeter
polygons representing the daily mapped wildland fire perimeter. [Last updated: February 2006] |
| final | GIS Data Layer - Fire History (polygons) | This standard provides the standard template for storage of Fire History
polygons representing the final mapped wildland fire perimeter. [Last updated: February 2006] |
| pending | GIS Data Layer - Fire Management Unit | This standard provides the standard template for storage of Fire Management Unit (FMU) polygons representing land management areas defined by objectives, management constraints, topographic features, access, values to be protected, political boundaries, fuel types, major fuel regime groups, and so on that set it apart from the management characteristics of an adjacent unit. |
| pending | GIS Data Layer - Fire Management Zone | |
| pending | GIS Data Layer - Fuels Project Area (polygons) | This standard provides the standard template for storage of fuels project area polygons representing a collection of treatments and activities. A project area is defined by the user but is generally considered to be the area of planning. |
| pending | GIS Data Layer - Fuels Treatment (polygons) | This standard provides the standard template for storage of fuels treatment polygons representing the tract of land where a unique fuels treatment is accomplished for a particular fiscal year. |
| pending | Horizontal Coordinate System Name | This standard provides a standard name for each of the horizontal coordinate systems used within the interagency wildland fire community. [Last updated: January 2006] |
| pending | Horizontal Coordinate System Parameters | This standard specifies a standard format and content for the complete set of parameters required to fully define the named horizontal coordinate systems used within the interagency wildland fire community. [Last updated: January 2006] |
| pending | Horizontal Datum Code | This standard provides a code and name for each of the point coordinate reference systems used within the interagency wildland fire community. [Last updated: January 2006] |
| final | Latitude | This standard specifies a standard format for latitude. [Last updated: December 2006] |
| pending | Layer Name | This standard specifies a standard format and definition for the descriptive name of a spatial dataset. |
| final | Longitude | This standard specifies a standard format for longitude. [Last updated: December 2006] |
| pending | Organization Type | |
| pending | Owner | This data standard provides a code and description for use in indicating the owner at the point of origin for a fire. |
| final | Position Code & Position Title | This standard provides a code (mnemonic) and title for each position used in incident management response. [Last updated: May 2005] |
| pending | Position Type | |
| pending | Reference | This standard provides a standard format for storing a description of an external source of information. |
| proposed | Source Scale Denominator | This standard specifies a standard format for the denominator of the representative fraction on a map scale. [Last updated: January 2006] |
| final | State Code | This standard adopts the two-letter state alphabetic codes in Federal
Information Processing Standards (FIPS) publication 5-2. [Last updated: September 2002] |
| pending | Training Course Number | |
| final | Unit Identifier | This data standard specifies the standard format and rules for Unit Identifier,
a code used within the wildland fire community to uniquely identify a particular
government organizational unit. (E.g., ID-BOF = Boise National Forest
located in the state of Idaho). [Last updated: February 2005] |
| pending | Wildland Fire Organization Role |
Detailed information regarding each final and proposed data standard is available by clicking on the data standard name.
Comments on a proposed or final NWCG data standard may be submitted to:
Chair, NWCG Data Administration Working Group
Comments may be submitted on a comment sheet available in MS Word format (40 KB) or PDF format (11 KB).