DOI - Interagency Fuel Treatment Decision Support System (IFTDSS)
Investment ID: 010-000001660
Overview
Program Title
DOI - Interagency Fuel Treatment Decision Support System (IFTDSS)
Description
Provides interagency fire fuel specialists with a web-based [SOA] that leverages software tools in an integrated framework, making fuel treatment planning & analysis more effective, efficient, & defensible. IFTDSS helps reduce costs and improve decisions of program managers. Supports the Wildland Fire Management program for DOI and USDA FS, as well as provides access for State, Tribal, and local users. Investment initiation was in 2015 with Implementation in 2018.
Type of Program
Non-major IT Investments
Multi-Agency Category
Not Applicable
Associated Websites
https://iftdss.firenet.gov/
Investment Detail
It is estimated qualitatively that IFTDSS will save the Departments significant costs each year in the costs associated with planning, analysis, modeling. IFTDSS will become the standard planning & reporting for treatment activities and accomplishments with the fuels program of the Wildland Fire program. IFTDSS will provide key information using models and data to perform analyses that provide decision support. It is unknown at this time from a planning perspective how many will use IFTDSS, however it is likely to be 1000 to 3000 users, with 1500 being regular users of IFTDSS to help manage their work and report their accomplishments once it becomes a required system.
The USDA Forest Service and DOI Agencies do not explicitly track expenditures related to business needs software such as the fire and fuels tools incorporated into IFTDSS. For example, current spending by the federal agencies on fire and fuels software including training, maintenance and updating, development, evaluation and deployment, is simply not known. Also missing is any cost information concerning private sector contracts to perform complex landscape analyses that agency employees cannot perform themselves because they don t have the training and/or software tools. For example, it is known that some agencies have commissioned private sector consultants to perform landscape level risk assessments at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars per assessment. Given that no reliable data exist across all federal agencies for any given year on how much is being spent in this expense category, however, the following are general estimates of benefits and ROI.
- Supports the Interagency Prescribed Fire Planning and Implementation Procedures Guide mandate for a single planning and implementation process for prescribed burns
- Supports The Federal Land Assistance, Management, and Enhancement Act Report to Congress mandate that DOI and the FS would use a common analysis method using common tools and emphasize risk assessments when determining areas for treatment
- Supports the Wildland Fire Information Technology (WFIT) Plan emphasis on integrated, modular applications and authoritative data that would be available to all users, and that research & innovation should enable and enhance mission accomplishment
- Supports IT savings of up to $500,000 annually and additional $30,000 to $400,000 for new software development with reductions of costs for new software, annual maintenance, marketing, training, and support
The USDA Forest Service and DOI Agencies do not explicitly track expenditures related to business needs software such as the fire and fuels tools incorporated into IFTDSS. For example, current spending by the federal agencies on fire and fuels software including training, maintenance and updating, development, evaluation and deployment, is simply not known. Also missing is any cost information concerning private sector contracts to perform complex landscape analyses that agency employees cannot perform themselves because they don t have the training and/or software tools. For example, it is known that some agencies have commissioned private sector consultants to perform landscape level risk assessments at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars per assessment. Given that no reliable data exist across all federal agencies for any given year on how much is being spent in this expense category, however, the following are general estimates of benefits and ROI.
- Supports the Interagency Prescribed Fire Planning and Implementation Procedures Guide mandate for a single planning and implementation process for prescribed burns
- Supports The Federal Land Assistance, Management, and Enhancement Act Report to Congress mandate that DOI and the FS would use a common analysis method using common tools and emphasize risk assessments when determining areas for treatment
- Supports the Wildland Fire Information Technology (WFIT) Plan emphasis on integrated, modular applications and authoritative data that would be available to all users, and that research & innovation should enable and enhance mission accomplishment
- Supports IT savings of up to $500,000 annually and additional $30,000 to $400,000 for new software development with reductions of costs for new software, annual maintenance, marketing, training, and support