Description: Montana Wildfire Risk Assessment summary information by Community Core Plus Zone Summary boundaries.<div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", system-ui, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">For this assessment, a community core was defined as a Populated Place Area (PPA) as identified by the U.S. Census Bureau. PPAs include incorporated cities and towns as well as Census Designated Places (CDPs). A CDP is an unincorporated concentration of population—a statistical counterpart to incorporated cities and towns. There are 364 PPAs across Montana. Of those, 127 (35 percent) are incorporated cities or towns, and 235 (65 percent) are CDPs. Two PPAs—Butte-Silver Bow and Anaconda-Deer Lodge—are unique in that they represent the balance of a county that is not otherwise incorporated; they are much larger in size than most PPAs. In the PPA dataset, the CDPs represent the location of highest concentration of population for a community; they do not include the less-densely populated areas surrounding the PPA. We refer to the U.S. Census PPA delineation as the community “core.” Approximately 66 percent of Montana’s total structure importance can be found within these PPA core areas (Figure A.1 of the Montana Wildfire Risk Assessment report). To include the populated area and structures surrounding the PPAs, Ager and others (2019) used a travel-time analysis to delineate the land areas closest by drive-time to each PPA core, up to a maximum of 45 minutes travel time. Approximately 33 percent of Montana’s total structure importance can be found within 45 minutes travel time of the cores. Only 1 percent of the total structure importance is not within 45-minutes travel time of any community core.</span><br /></div>
Copyright Text: Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation