Welcome to WFDSS

Currently, WFDSS has limited functionality related to Decision Approval and User Notifications that are noted as challenges to ensure timely publication of decisions. Lack of these two features mean that only one user can “Approve” a decision and that Approver is not notified through the application that there is a decision ready for approval.

A work around had been developed, specific to Alaska, to capture the concurrence of multiple approvers as well as coordinate final approval of the decision. This work around/workflow is one option; other areas can choose to document multiple approvers as they choose.

Below is the SOP identified by the Alaska Geographic Area to stamp a decision with multiple approvers:

1. Once a decision is ready to publish, the POC should add the following text at the top of the Leaders Intent text box on the Decision Approval/Assessment stepper, Decision Rationale tab: “DRAFT - This draft is being published by the POC so that concurrence can be obtained from other approvers and included in the final decision.” , followed by a list of the approvers and their roles.

2. The POC can then publish the decision, download and email the PDF to the approvers. *POC must self-certify as an approver to do this.

3. Once the approvers have read and accepted or had their recommended edits added to the decision, they should then email their approval and signature block to the POC, which can be screen captured and added to the rationale to document their approval.

4. Following capture of the multiple approvals, the draft text in step one can be removed from the rationale, rationale then marked ready to publish, and the decision can then be locked for approval.

5. The POC then needs to let the singular approver know that the decision is ready for publication so the final draft decision can be published.

As can be seen from the steps outlined above, there are multiple points at which clear and timely communication is critical and that the process for decision approval can easily be delayed.

WFDSS does not require a reviewer to approve the decision before the approver can sign and approve the decision. Instead of a review process, WFDSS allows the user to lock each section by marking it ‘Ready to Publish’, having all the required sections marked as ‘Ready to Publish’ in effect marks the decision as having had been reviewed and will allow it to be submitted for approval by one or multiple approvers.

If a user is a Collaborator on an incident, they can navigate to the Collaborator tab on the Incident Info stepper and view the Collaborators List. Using the Edit Collaborators accordion, a collaborator can add or remove collaborators, reassign POC or assign an Approver. Only users that have self-certified Approver qualifications on their user profile can be assigned as Approver. Multiple Approvers are allowed to maintain a collaborative risk-informed decision.

If a user is not a collaborator on an incident where a decision has been started, they should contact the POC to be added to the incident by navigating to the Collaborator tab on the Incident Info stepper and viewing the Collaborators List to locate the POC. Clicking on the POCs name will open a new window, displaying the POC contact information, including email and phone number.

When in doubt, refresh your browser! The application is accessing a huge amount of content from multiple sources and services and interruptions to connectivity may result in information not being displayed in your browser.

You can also check out the Known Issues section to see if your are encountering an issue that WFDSS team is working to fix.

Users with approved access and roles through FAMAuth still need to access the application instance (EDU and PROD) to create a user record in the application. Best practice is to log in to each instance of WFDSS when roles have been approved and complete the User Profile information, including self-certifying as approver, where appropriate. See the

Ensure there is at least one Approver assigned on the Collaborator tab of the Incident Info Stepper. At this time, the application only allows for one Approver to Approve and Publish a decision; multiple approver concurrence can be tracked in the Decision Rationale tab or Decision Assessment/Approval Notes (this feature area is still in development).

Supporting information available within the application do not automatically populate in the Decision document. To include maps and charts in the Decision document, images can be captured by using the Print Map tool on the Map Widgets toolbar, downloading charts an image file using the hamburger icon in the upper right corner of the chart, or by simply using an image capture tool on your computer, and pasting into the associated narrative box. For example, adding the image of a vicinity map and/or Planning Area map in the Rationale narrative will display that map at the beginning of the Decision document within the Rationale section.

Each section must be marked as Ready for Publication using the toggle at the bottom of the Right Hand Panel. In future releases, this validation will automatically populate the check boxes in the Required Decisions Elements in the Decision Approval & Assessment tab. Until that functionality is operational, users will have to manually check those boxes to be able to Approve and Publish a Decision.

The Decision Approval & Assessment accordion under the Decision Approval/Assessment tab (Number of Days Between Required Assessments and Decision Approval/Approval Notes) can only be submitted by Approvers assigned to the Incident. At this time, these notes do not persist and do not populate in the Decision. To document any approval notes, it is recommended to use a screen capture tool and store with official documentation.

There is no Notification functionality available from the application at this time - Approvers will need to track the number of days and set up a reminder outside of the application.

The vision behind WFDSS is to create a living document to support Risk-Informed Decision Making. Every Assessment creates a new Decision document. This allows for maximum flexibility in aligning decision content with the fire environment.

It is always recommeded that users follow Agency, Area, or Unit protocols for getting Decision Support.The User Support link in the header banner of any WFDSS instance will open the WFDSS Home page in a new window on the User’s browser. Users can use the search box in the upper right of the screen, navigate to topics on the left-hand panel or select resources from the Quick Links section.

For self-service application support, the User Support link in the header banner of any WFDSS instance will open the WFDSS Home page in a new window on the User’s browser. Users can use the search box in the upper right of the screen, navigate to topics on the left-hand panel or select resources from the Quick Links section.

Microvideos are available on our YouTube channel.

For application access and role requests, please reach out to your local GAE.

Users can report issues with the system at WFDSS Feedback.

As the application is currently in development, these user support topics will continue to evolve.

The modernization of the WFDSS application is being realized through a full redesign and reconfiguration utilizing an agile process where the end result will not only preserve the key functionality of the previous operational version of WFDSS, referred to as WFDSS Classic, while incorporating some key foundational technology changes that will improve user experience. This application includes a new user interface as well as an updated systems architecture. It is estimated that WFDSS will host over 8,000 active users annually and will reference 100 to 150 data services within the mapping interface.

The initial production release includes the features deemed part of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and will include the necessary features to allow decision makers to fully progress through the decision framework and publish a decision.

• Spatial Inventory – The need for a complete picture of the values within your planning area when making an informed decision, and as such this key aspect touches many other parts of an informed decision. In order to facilitate the automated delivery of a Spatial Inventory WFDSS uses an automated planning are to produce a Spatial Inventory on the start of a decision, however a user can use a variety of Feature Layers to develop additional Spatial Inventories.

• FSPro – Fire Spread Probability (FSPro) model was identified as the priority for fire behavior modeling within WFDSS primarily because there is no desktop or web-based alternative to run WFDSS, whereas FlamMap, MTT, and FARSITE all have alternatives available in desktop applications. FSPro was also the most difficult model to incorporate and the most complex due to the dependencies on the Fire Environment Mapping System (FEMS) to query the weather imports for analyses. Although there are still challenges and issues with the FEMS queries needed to make FSPro work consistently and reliably, FSPro is currently integrated and working.

• Relative Risk - Also known as the “Part B: Relative Risk Assessment”, is part of the “NWCG PMS 236 - Wildland Fire Risk and Complexity Assessment”. In the past, this tool had deviated from the published PMS – 236 within WFDSS Classic, WFDSS will more closely follow the PMS 236 in order to align with NWCG guidance. The deployment in WFDSS does have some advantages over the paper copy (PDF) in that the application can automatically present products derived from the spatial Inventory of the planning area, and in future, present other information such as fire behavior analysis, helping to inform the Relative Risk ratings. Relative Risk has been further enhanced by the fact that the user never leaves the map screen, allowing for the user to consult the map on the fly as the Relative Risk is populated vs paging back and forth between the map and the Relative Risk.

• Strategic Decision – The “Decision” is a multi-part product that incorporates analytics and the components of the Risk Informed Decision Process into a comprehensive format for use in Wildland Fire Management. For the context of the MVP however the decision is broken into its core components which are listed below:

  • Strategic Assessment(s) - Strategic Assessments in WFDSS is analogous to the Objectives and Requirements section in WFDSS Classic. Minor differences have been implemented in WFDSS including, making all Spatial Assessments Spatial (Tied to Feature Layer and Feature Name), linking the Critical Values at Risk (CVAR) from the ISAP process, the additional categories of Spatial Assessments (SA), highlighting in the decision of select SAs and the pre-clipping of Spatial Fire Planning Shapes.

  • Strategic Course of Action - The Course of Action (COA) in WFDSS will be an explicitly spatial process but otherwise will be very similar to COA in WFDSS Classic and is a required part of the decision in that there must be at least one COA per decision.

  • Cost – Estimated Final Cost is an important component of the decision in that it is tied to AA/LO certification levels, as well as the expected complexity and duration of the incident.

• Organization Assessment - Also know as the “Part C: Organization Assessment” and the Optional “Part D: Functional Complexity Assessment”, which are part of the “NWCG PMS 236 - Wildland Fire Risk and Complexity Assessment”. In WFDSS, it was decided to more closely follow the PMS 236 as it was with Relative Risk, and as such the CIMT configurations were added to WFDSS. The PMS 236 implementation in WFDSS will be updated to reflects any changes to the NWCG 236 as they are published.  

• Rationale – This is a crucial component of the decision in that it gives the overall decision context and leader’s intent.

• Decision Approval and Publication - The final step of the decision is for the collaborating agencies to approve and publish the decision. It is at this point that the working files become an official record of the fire. One complicated and time-consuming part of this feature is the encapsulation of all the information included in the decision to this point in a PDF document that can then be retained as part of the permanent record.

• Legacy Data - Archiving of Legacy Data is a critical part of the WFDSS MVP as it helps us comply with National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) records management requirements and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).