Case Study

How QD RAWS Is Helping Ventura County Control Wildfire Risk

Overview
Challenges
Solution
Components

Establishing a wildfire monitoring network

Overview

Did you know Ventura County, California has been rated the most at-risk county in the most at-risk state for wildfire?

In their efforts to manage this risk, county officials do their best to stay aware of exactly when and where conditions are most conducive to the spread of fire. And that means closely monitoring local temperatures, as well as humidity, wind, fuel moisture levels, etc.

Here’s the challenge: In a county that is almost twice the size of Rhode Island and ranges in elevation from 50–8,800 feet (15–2,690 meters) above sea level, fire conditions can vary dramatically from one area to another. To solve that challenge, Ventura County has created and continues to expand its network of Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS).

Ken VanWig,
Retired Fire Captain, Wildland/Aviation Division

“We purchased the QDRAWS just to have for project work like vegetation management. Then we also used it to identify good spots for permanent stations… It’s just been great. It’s easy to deploy. Easy to take down. It’s a great product.”

Prioritizing network expansion

The Problem

Even as Ventura County deployed its first fixed RAWS sites, officials realized the county’s network would eventually need to expand. To prioritize the expansion, officials needed to understand and quantify the amount of risk at various candidate sites. This posed a chicken-and-egg problem: How could they identify additional at-risk sites before deploying additional fixed RAWS? To solve this problem, they needed a single weather station that could be:

1. Repeatedly deployed across different sites

They needed a portable unit that could easily be set up and taken down without committing to permanent installation.

2. As accurate as a fixed RAWS

The data collected by this unit would be just as critical as that collected by a fixed RAWS. So, it would need to be just as accurate.

3. As durable as a fixed RAWS

This unit needed to withstand the same harsh conditions as a fixed RAWS, plus the stress of repeated deployments.

QD RAWS

The Solution

The solution for Ventura County ended up being AEM’s Quick Deploy Remote Automated Weather Station (QD RAWS). THE QD RAWS is durable enough and simple enough to deploy that it can be repeatedly set up across various candidate sites, and county officials can trust the scientific-grade data it delivers to help them determine the level of risk at each site. Here’s why:

Fast, easy deployment

The QD RAWS is designed to be deployed by one person within 15 minutes without tools, a field PC, or technical training. Each unit is light and portable.

Precision sensing

The QD RAWS utilizes the same sensors and telemetry as our fixed RAWS, which has set the standard for North American data accuracy.

Rugged construction

The QD RAWS is designed to deliver a long service life even in the harshest conditions. It comes as a fully sealed, water-tight unit that can shed snow and withstand wind gusts up to 100 mph (160kph). It has no plastic parts.

Ventura County’s expanding wildfire monitoring network

After about six years of service, Ventura County’s QD RAWS is still running strong. Over the past three years, the county has been using it to collect vital information about a site in Simi Valley. Based on the data, county officials have concluded that there is sufficient wildfire risk at the site to recommend the installation of a fixed RAWS, which would free up the QD RAWS to begin evaluating the next potential at-risk site.

The Components