California Wildland Urban Interface Maps at 30m Resolution, 2000-2020

California's Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) is mapped at a ~30-meter resolution for the years 2000, 2010, and 2020. The maps were generated by researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder and Arizona State University using parcel data, building footprints, and land cover data. Raster values classify areas as non-WUI, intermix WUI, or interface WUI.

Use Cases

• Modeling wildfire risk exposure based on WUI classification and temporal change.
• Analyzing urban expansion into wildland areas based on the 20-year time series.
• Planning land use and resource allocation based on property-level WUI maps.
• Validating other WUI mapping methodologies using the described Time Step Moving Window (TSMW) framework.

Strengths

• Provides a 20-year time series (2000-2020) for analyzing change.
• Uses a ~30-meter spatial resolution for detailed property-level mapping.
• Integrates multiple authoritative sources: Zillow ZTRAX, FEMA USA Structures, and the National Land Cover Database.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Spatial coverage is limited to California, which may limit broader applicability.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.

Provenance

Source

University of Colorado Boulder, Arizona State University, Zillow ZTRAX, FEMA, NLCD

Collection Method

Generated using the Time Step Moving Window (TSMW) method on integrated parcel, building footprint, and land cover data.

Time Range

2000-2020

Geography

California, USA