Community Fire Risk Reduction - Video transcript
(The Statistics Canada symbol and Canada wordmark appear on screen with the title: "Community Fire Risk Reduction")
Welcome to the Community Fire risk reduction dashboard demo.
The Community fire risk reduction dashboard was a collaboration between Statistics Canada and the BC office of the Fire Commissioner.
This was a self-funded pilot project to demonstrate the power of geomatics in decision making for fire prevention programs.
The pilot project focused solely on residential fires.
It's main objectives are: To visualize the spatial patterns of population fire risk factors.
To visualize the possible associations between risk factors and fire incident rates and ultimately identify target areas for fire prevention programs.
Please note that all the information I am providing in this demonstration is available in a document within the dashboard in the form of a User Gide, so you may focus on the demonstration and not feel the need to take notes.
Using previously identified population risk factors and fire incidents data, we selected a series of spatial layers at the dissemination area level or neighborhood level.
From the census profile, we selected: The percentage of population under five years of age.
The percentage of population of 65 years of age and over.
The percentage of lone parent families. The percentage unemployment rate.
And the percentage of movers.
From the NFID database, we selected the residential fire incident rates per hundred selected residential use dwelling structures.
The percentage of non working smoke alarms at residential fires.
And the casualty rate per hundred selected residential dwelling structures.
We calculated 2 sub indices, one named the Census Composite Index which was based on population fire risk predisposition scores.
And the other one, Named the NFID Composite Index, Which was related to fire incidence variables scores.
Once the two sub indices were created, we calculated a single Composite Index that combined the two in order to identify target areas.
The technology used for this pilot project is ESRI ArcGIS Online. More specifically, web map, operations dashboard and instant app.
The data used for the pilot project was from the 2016 Census profile and 2016 census boundary files and the fire incident data are BC's 2015 to 2021 data reported to Statistics Canada's National Fire Information Database.
Now let's take a look at the dashboard:
When you first log into the dashboard, you will be greeted with a splash page with some relevant information about the dashboard.
The dashboard is made out of six tabs located on the top of your screen. I'll go through each of them individually.
The main tab, the Community Fire risk reduction dashboard tab is where the dashboard is located.
At the top of the dashboard, in the header, We have a choose a municipality filter. This filter is used to zoom to a specific municipality.
On the the left hand side, we have several counters that display the number of Census Dissemination Area and number of dwellings included in the High, medium and low risk zones as calculated using the census profile variables only. It should be noted that a Census Dissemination Area, or DA's are neighborhoods consisting of a population of about 400-700 people.
The bottom counter displays the total population of the DA included in the map extent.
In the middle, we have an area that displays the legend of each layers being viewed in the map.
At the bottom of your screen you will find the raw data table that is related to what you are seeing on the map area.
If you click on a specific row, the map will automatically zoom the DA selected and all the values in the counters will be recalculated based on the map extent.
Located in the middle of the dashboard is the map area. Within the map area resides several widgets.
In order to navigate in the map area, you can use the scroll wheel on your mouse. Rolling it forward, will zoom in, and rolling it backwards, will zoom out.
Or you can use the zoom in or zoom out using the + and button located the bottom left corner of the map.
At the top right corner of the map you will find 5 more widgets.
1 - The address widget: you can click n the magnifying glass, type in a specific address and the map will zoom in automatically to the chosen address
2 - The home button: when you click on the home button you go back to the default map extent in the Surrey area
3 - The legend widget allows you to view the legend of each layer displayed in the map
4 - The layer selector widget allows you to select different layers to display in the map by clicking on the eye logo
5 - Finally the basemap widget allows you to select a different basemap to add more information in the map. For example, I will select the imagery basemap and now, if I zoom in a little, I will see each building, roads that exist on the ground.
Let me go back to the light gray canvas.
When you first open the dashboard, the first layer you will see by default is the bivariate Composite Index calculated from the two sub indices - the NFID sub index and the census profile sub index.
The bivariate composite index highlights the DAS that are the most at risk.
The risk is represented by different color gradients. The risk level increases as the color gradient darkens.
DAs classified at risk from the NFID sub index have a red color gradient and Das classified at risk from the census profile sub index have a blue color gradient and DAs that are classified at risk in both sub indexes have a color combination between red and blue.
Therefore, a light gray area indicates no risk.
A dark blue area will indicate a high risk based on census data.
A dark red area will indicate a high risk based on NFID variables.
And the mix of the two which is a dark purple will indicate a high risk area based on both NFID and Census variables.
Now we'll zoom into the map.
Let's take look at the bivariate Composite Index.
As you can see. The dark red areas indicate High risk areas based on National Fire information databased only.
To validate this you would have to click on the entity and you would see all the variables related to that particular dissemination area, as you can see, the five Census variables in terms of percentage.
We have the census composite index, which is no risk.
But if you look at the NFID Composite Index, it shows as a medium risk.
The same with applied to the dark blue areas. If you click on the dark blue area. Which is classified as HIGHER RISK calculated from census data. The composite census data is low and the NFID Composite Index is no risk.
If you look at across tabulation of those two indices in the dark purple area:
You will see that in these particular areas, the Census Composite Index rated as medium risk and the NFID Composite Index rated as a medium risk.
Now, if you wanted to explore a little bit more the underlying variables for each DA, we would go into the layers widget.
Let's start looking at the census of population and turn off the composite bivariate index layer, and look at for example, at the percentage of population 65 years of age and over.
As you can see the same area has a very high percentage of population 65 years of age and over.
We could also look at unemployment rate. And again the same area has high unemployment rate.
We could also investigate the fire related database layers by turning on the residential fire incident rate layer and we would realize that the incidence is very high for the same area.
Another set of layers that are very interesting to look at are the Canadian index of multiple Deprivation layers. These layers allow for understanding of inequalities in various measures of health and social well-being.
If you look at residential instability for example, you will see that the same area has a high risk index rating.
So this tool allows you to navigate through different layers of data and interpret and understand the fire risk situation at the neighborhood area.
This tool will help you make the most efficient management decision for your fire prevention programs in your jurisdiction.
The second tab at the top is named Map Export.
This tool allows you to zoom into an area, select the layers to display on the map, change the basemap and create a .pdf map of the area of interest.
Describe layer select widget
Describe basemap widget
Describe functionality of export map widget
Set the map area
Add a legend
Select orientation (portrait or landscape)
Add a title
Download the image
Once downloaded, you can insert it is not a document or share it with your colleagues.
The third tab at the top is the about the dashboard tab.
This is where you find the data dictionary and also all the information related to the layers available in the dashboard; furthermore, you will find the web links to each category of layers where you can have very detailed information.
The forth tab at the top is the methodology tab.
It describes in full details the methodology used for creating the sub indices and the bivariate composite index.
The fifth tab at the top, which is very important for us and for you is the feedback from.
If you have any ideas for improvement, comments, suggestions and feedback on the application please fill in the online form and press the submit button at the bottom of the page. As this dashboard is a pilot, your feedback will be used by Statistics Canada to create the next version of the tool. It is also planned that the next version would include data from other provinces and territories as well as 2021 Census data.
And the last tab is a user guide.
Where you have a detailed written documentation that descries all the functionalities of the dashboard and how to use it.
This concludes the Community Fire Risk Reduction Dashboard demonstration.
I hope you enjoyed the video and found it useful.
Enjoy the dashboard and don't forget to send us your feedback.
Thanks and have a great day.
For more information, please contact Client Service: statcan.ccjcss-ccsjsc.statcan@statcan.gc.ca
(The Canada wordmark is on screen.)