Known Issues and FAQs

The cause for this may depend upon whether you use eAuth or Login.gov to login to IFTDSS.

Agency staff using eAuth may see an 'Account Not Found' message if they have recently changed agencies. This can occur due to the time it takes for the PIV card or Link Pass records to update. In some cases, you may have updated the email in your IFTDSS account to your new email, but your PIV card is still sending the old credentials to IFTDSS.

Solution: The short term solution is to access IFTDSS using Login.gov and an authentication method other than your PIV card or Link Pass. Instructions for this may be found on the Topic 'Using Login.gov with an Agency Email'. If you are using a PIV card from your old agency, we recommend having a new card issued from your current agency. If you are still experiencing difficulty, please contact the IFTDSS Support Desk for assistance.

Those using Login.gov and experiencing issues, the most common cause stems from having a different email account associated with their IFTDSS account than they have on their Login.gov account.

Solution: If you only have one email associated with your Login.gov account, ensure that it is the same email used for your IFTDSS account, or contact the IFTDSSSupport Desk for assistance.

If you have multiple emails associated with Login.gov, know that IFTDSS will use whichever email you entered when signing on to your Login.gov session. Ensure that you use the email associated with your IFTDSS account to sign into Login.gov in order to ensure the correct credentials are being used.

Replicating Default Fuels Treatment Rules is difficult because they rely on LANDFIRE Look-up (LFLU) tables which are used by IFTDSS when Default Fuel Treatment / Disturbance Edit Rules are implemented. The LFLU tables are used to adjust the fuel attributes of cells, including: fuel model, canopy cover, stand height, canopy base height, and canopy bulk density, based on the type and intensity of treatment or disturbance and the time that has elapsed since that treatment or disturbance. This makes the rules difficult to reproduce on an area that has several combinations of fuel attributes.

The following topics are intended to assist in the creation of User Created Edit Rules to approximate fuels treatments:

• User Created Editing Rule Guidance Topic

• Editing Tips Topic

If aspect is used as a selector when creating edit rules for a landscape, it must be defined in two separate rules. Setting the maximum and minimum range of the aspect in a single rule will not be read logically by IFTDSS and results in partial selection.

The example below will be correctly read by IFTDSS. These two rules combine to set the fuel model for all aspects between 158 and 202 degrees to fuel model 165:

1. Where (Aspect is less than or equal to 202 degrees) Change (Fuel Model set to 165)

2. Where (Aspect is greater than or equal to 158 degrees) Change (Fuel Model set to 165)

(Reported 2024)

Delete the failed run and re-run the model. This is most often a failure in the fire modeling services that feed into IFTDSS.

(Reported August 2022)

This error most often occurs when attempting to access IFTDSS from outside of North America. However, it has been occasionally encountered by users in North America outside of the United States.

Solution:

Due to security policies, IFTDSS availability is limited to North American users. If you are experiencing issues accessing IFTDSS, please contact the IFTDSS Support Desk for assistance.

(Reported March 2023)

This error is encountered when using very long names with no spaces. For example, a landscape name consisting of several words separated by underscores rather than spaces. Such a name will still allow the report to be viewed in IFTDSS, but will lead to this error when the user attempts to download a pdf copy.

The solution is to break up names in IFTDSS with spaces rather than underscores to avoid encountering this browser error when downloading a pdf copy of the report.

(Reported May 2021)

Often, the model run error text is generated by the Fire Modeling Services Framework (FMSF) on which IFTDSS relies to run models. See the following FMSF error topics for a list of model errors and their meaning:

For LandLandscape Fire Behavior:

Common Model Errors for FlamMap

For MTT Fire Spread:

Common Model Errors for MTT Fire Spread

For Landscape Burn Probability:

Common Errors for Randig

For Exposure Analysis run failures resulting in the message: "gov.iftdss.exception.IFTDSSArcGISException: AGOL could not be reached for the following sub-HVRAs:..."

This error occurs when a data service supporting Mapped Values fails, thus leading to an Exposure Analysis failure as well. If you experience this error you may notify the Support Desk and try again later. Typically, the error only occurs for minute or two, so deleting the failed run and re-running a few minutes later will result in a completed run.

(Reported March 2020)

When uploading shapefiles with multiple adjoining polygons, IFTDSS will automatically join the polygons into a single dataset; this process may create erroneous gaps or vertices where these polygons once touched. Visit Shapefile Repair for details on how to repair and edit shapefiles.

(Reported April 2017)

When a user views a very large Highly Valued Resource or Asset (HVRA) Set in Map Studio, the HVRA Set may appear grayed out in the Layer List until zooming in.

(Reported 29 July 2019)

In the Develop Treatment Alternative task, on the "compare" step, horizontal "streaking" sometimes appears in the Landscape Change layer for large landscapes. These streaks do not reflect raster changes, they are introduced due to a re-sampling issue on the ArcGIS server.

Fix: To remove the streaks, zoom in on the map and it will automatically re-draw the layer.

(Reported 2/22/18)

LANDFIRE Data Products will return a value, rather than a name, when using the Identify widget, similar to the image below. This value may be crosswalked to a name using one of the applicable csv spreadsheets linked at the bottom of this topic. For Example, looking up the EVT value of 7126 in the EVT spreadsheet, shows this EVT to be "Inter-Mountain Basins Montane Sagebrush Steppe"

LANDFIRE Spreadsheets

Click on a link below to download the appropriate spreadsheet:

• Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS) *

• Forest Canopy Base Height (CBD)

• Forest Canopy Base Height (CBH)

• Forest Canopy Cover (CC)

• Forest Canopy Height (CH)

• Existing Vegetation Height (EVH)

• Existing Vegetation Type (EVT)

• Fire Behavior Fuel Model 13 (FBFM13)

• Fire Behavior Fuel Model 40 (FBFM40)

• Fuel Characterization Classification System (FCCS)

• Vegetation Condition Class (VCC)

• Vegetation Departure Index (VDEP)

* CFFDRS is only available for Alaska.

Landscapes in IFTDSS are supplied by LANDFIRE. When you create a landscape with Map Studio's Landscape Tools for example, data is pulled from LANDFIRE to create a copy of that LANDFIRE landscape in IFTDSS. You may use the landscape as-is, or you may make edits to the landscape if what you are seeing does not match the conditions you know to be true on the ground.

Editing an IFTDSS landscape to better represent conditions on the ground is a common practice. Some resources for editing landscapes include:

• Landscape editing guidance for representing treatments topic.

• Landscape editing tips topic.

For landscapes created prior to September 2018: You may notice the blue boundary around the landscape does not perfectly match the edge of the landscape. This does not affect your data or use of the landscape in analyses, the boundary simply marks the approximate edge of your landscape.

(Reported 7/18/20)

On some small screens and tablets Map Studio may appear slightly different compared to normal sized monitors, with the widgets along the bottom spanning the entire page, and the widgets in the top left and right in different locations. As a temporary work-around while we address this issue, you may reduce the size of the page via the zoom option in Chrome. From the top ribbon, click the Customize icon in the top right of your browser, and reduce the zoom until Map Studio displays correctly, typically 90% or 80%.

See the Help Center Topic on ArcPro Ember correction for details on how to fix this issue.

Minimum Travel Time (MTT) Fire Spread Major Paths may not be visible if you are zoomed out too far. Zooming in should fix the issue. If you are unable to see Major Paths regardless of zoom level, please contact the IFTDSS Support Desk .

(Reported June 2023)

On rare occasions, Minimum Travel Time (MTT) Fire Spread may only display one or two burn periods of a three-burn period run.

If this occurs, delete the run and re-run the model.

Reported 2025

This may appear when downloading MTT outputs and reviewing in ArcMap. When looking at the coordinate system for the outputs, it appears that they are not in the same projection. This is just a naming difference for the MTT Embers layer and MTT Major Flow Paths. All of the data are in the same projection and do not need to be re-projected.

Most often, if an MTT Fire Spread run fails and displays the Status "MTT model run-time error -251: No Spread Data for Ignition" it is because an ignition has been placed where it cannot spread. Examples of this can include:

• An ignition placed on what appears to be a burnable pixel while not zoomed in. Especially for point ignitions, these may easily land on the edge of a non-burnable pixel and be difficult to detect until zooming in.

• An ignition placed on the edge of a burnable pixel on a large landscape that is then automatically resampled which results in a different fuel model footprint where the ignition then lands on a non-burnable pixel.

• An ignition placed fully within a filled barrier.

Solution: Place the ignition on a burnable area and re-run the model. If an ignition is inside of a barrier, the barrier must not be a filled barrier

Another potential reason for a model failures are runs with high fuel moistures, in which the ignition may be on a burnable fuel model, but the moisture of extinction has been exceeded preventing fire spread.

Solution:

Lower the fuel moisture so they do not exceed the moisture of extinction. The moistures of extinction are listed on the following documents:

• For the 13 Fire Behavior Fuel Models they're listed in table in Anderson (1982)

• For the 40, they're listed under each fuel model in Scott and Burgan's (2005)

If you encounter issues in which symbology from IFTDSS exports does not appear correct in ArcPro, the following resources may help.

• To check units: Some units displayed in IFTDSS differ from those in IFTDSS download files. Unit comparison tables for outputs may be fount on the Download Units topic.

• To check symbology files: IFTDSS exports come with layer (.lyr) files to create similar symbologies as those seen in Map Studio. It is import to note that the classification used when setting these differs by model output. Please refer to your specific output and model type for the correct classifications settings. These may be found in the Arc Pro Symbologies topic.

Currently, the timestamps for models and resources created within in IFTDSS are in eastern time.

Note that IFTDSS and FTEM do not actively convert data to eastern time if it is imported. This has the potential to cause confusion, especially in FTEM, where fires from different sources may be brought into the system.

For example, a fire that is discovered on July 1 at 2100 eastern daylight time will have a discovery time in IRWIN of July 2, 0100 GMT. However, when this data is pulled into FTEM, the discovery day/time will remain July 2, 0100, it will not automatically be converted back to July 1 at 2100 eastern daylight time. In parts of FTEM where the time zone is not listed, this may cause confusion.

(Updated September 2021)

Logging into IFTDSS and finding what appears to be an empty workspace can happen if an older version of Chrome or Edge is being used, or if the browser cache hasn't been cleared since the last IFTDSS update. If this occurs, follow the steps below to update your browser, clear the browser cache, and restore your Workspace view.

For Chrome Browsers

1. Log out of IFTDSS if you are logged in.

2. Ensure your version of Chrome is up to date by following the steps in this Google topic .

3. Clear the browser cache by following the steps in this Google topic . For step 3, select "All Time" rather than "The last hour."

4. Restart Chrome and log back into IFTDSS. All the contents will now be visible in My Workspace.

For Edge Browsers

1. Log out of IFTDSS if you are logged in.

2. Ensure your version of Edge is up to date by following the steps in this Edge topic .

3. Clear the browser cache by following the steps in this Edge topic .

4. Restart Edge and log back into IFTDSS. All the contents will now be visible in My Workspace.