Wildland-Urban Interface

Map of 2010 WUI areas in the New River Valley defined by census blocks.

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) areas are defined as areas where homes and associated structures are intermixed with forests, shrublands, and grasslands. Areas shown are census blocks with both, housing densities greater than 6.17 units per square kilometer, and vegetation cover greater than or equal to 50%.

This map was made for an assignment in my Modeling in GIS class. It was created by calculating the housing density, reclassifying land use, and calculating the percent of vegetation cover for each census block.

Data used:
Virginia land use and land cover map derived from the National Land Cover Database 2006 (NLCD2006). http://www.mrlc.gov/finddata.php
US Ecoregion shapefile was obtained from the US Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/wed/pages/ecoregions/ecoregions.htm
Housing unit data was taken from the US Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tiger-data.html