{"id":580306,"date":"2025-12-09T17:31:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T17:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/blog\/?post_type=blog&p=580306"},"modified":"2025-12-16T17:20:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T17:20:25","slug":"city-of-scottsdale-gets-homes-wildfire-ready","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/blog\/articles\/city-of-scottsdale-gets-homes-wildfire-ready","title":{"rendered":"City of Scottsdale Gets Homes Wildfire Ready"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enhancing Wildfire Assessment Programs with a Geospatial Approach<\/h2>\n\n

To many, Scottsdale, Arizona, doesn\u2019t look like the typical scene for large scale wildland urban interface (WUI) fires. It\u2019s comprised of luxury homes, saguaro silhouettes, and long ribbons of Natural Area Open Space (NAOS), areas that mandate the preservation of a property in its natural state, that thread right through neighborhoods. Those NAOS areas and their protected washes are gorgeous, and, in the wrong week of heat and wind, these unmitigated areas can act as a fuse.<\/p>\n\n

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We sat down with Scottsdale Fire and its geographic information system (GIS) team to unpack a program that looks simple on paper; drive around, perform home assessments, document issues, and inform the public, but it is quietly one of the most mature \u201cevery home, every year\u201d wildfire assessment programs we\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n\n

Captain Jim Mack noted, \u201cWe\u2019re real aggressive about prevention here in Scottsdale. These (fires) can get out of hand quick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Before its modernization, Scottsdale\u2019s assessment workflow was exactly what you\u2019d expect \u2013 lots of paper records, and no efficient way to measure progress.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe used to just print up map pages and make little three-ring binders for each station\u2026 mark a house on the map and leave a door hanger,\u201d said Chief Kerry Swick. This was done for tens of thousands of homes, every year \u2013 on paper.<\/p>\n\n

In 2019, the city\u2019s GIS team, led by Mele Koneya and Chris Lechner, changed this paper-based workflow. They created a data-driven home assessment mitigation application. Borrowing lessons from their fire hydrant review program and other GIS efforts around the city, they stood up a mitigation focused ArcGIS Web AppBuilder application and ArcGIS Dashboards<\/a> to review progress of the fire department personnel to assess residential areas by station and shift.<\/p>\n\n

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Then came the ability to live-edit defensible space status in the field with ArcGIS Field Maps<\/a>. \u201cPictures definitely tell the story. Last year was the first year we started collecting photos, and this year we refined it\u201d Koneya said.<\/p>\n\n

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Crews now run windshield surveys with ArcGIS Field Maps; tap a form; and, when something\u2019s off, snap a photo that will later travel with a postcard to owners. That single design choice closed the loop between firefighters, community relations, and residents.<\/p>\n\n

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2025 Home Assessments in Scottsdale<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Stretching roughly 31 miles from north to south, Scottsdale concentrates its annual checks where neighborhoods press up against risk-laden NAOS. This season, crews completed approximately 42,000 assessments, including both residential properties and NAOS segments. This represents about a 25 percent increase from the 33,000\u201334,000 assessments completed last year.<\/p>\n\n

The workload is split among eight to nine northern stations, with seasonal brush units pitching in. Using ArcGIS Field Maps, every address gets triaged with a green, yellow, or red color system: green if it\u2019s good, red if there\u2019s a problem, and yellow if it\u2019s not done yet. When a property is identified as red, fire department representatives knock on the door and turn findings into fixes.<\/p>\n\n

Those numbers aren\u2019t just feeding a dashboard; they\u2019re positively influencing operations. \u201cIt puts [at-risk areas] on the company officer\u2019s radar,\u201d says Captain Blake Miller.<\/p>\n\n

Red Roofs, Postcards, and Real Accountability<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

The city uses a clean color cue: green is good; red needs action. However, a dot changing colors on a map doesn\u2019t do the work to get rid of weeds or remove ladder fuels against siding. Communication does.<\/p>\n\n

The fire department \u201cstarted sending postcards to homes with issues, and residents came back saying, \u2018I don\u2019t understand the problem.\u2019 So, we added photos and specific mitigation detail so we could communicate it better and, if needed, fire department personnel can go out for an on-site assessment,\u201d said Public Information Officer, Lori Stauffer.<\/p>\n\n

Now the workflow looks like this:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  1. Windshield survey in ArcGIS Field Maps, flagging issues and taking photos<\/li>\n\n
  2. Door hanger left with simple, specific guidance<\/li>\n\n
  3. Mailing postcards (yes, even to out-of-town, second-home owners) that includes information on how to fix the exact issue that was found<\/li>\n\n
  4. Fire department visit for owners who need it<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    Chief Swick said that staff have seen that \u201cthe postcard makes it to Chicago where the homeowner lives so they can call their landscaper or HOA, and things get done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

    The NAOS Curveball<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

    NAOS, which is central to Scottsdale\u2019s identity, can be a major wildfire vector when choked with flashy grass and dead material.<\/p>\n\n

    \u201cThe NAOS areas are our problem. It\u2019s not the single-family home anymore,\u201d said Chief Swick. Here\u2019s the catch: Ordinance currently limits what can be done in NAOS (e.g., no vegetation management by homeowners and no gas-powered tools), which means motivated homeowners and firefighters have their hands tied. Even if homeowners attempt to mitigate risk in these areas, they can get ticketed for the work.<\/p>\n\n

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    This year, Scottsdale began explicitly assessing NAOS segments alongside individual parcels, which does two important things:<\/p>\n\n