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Data Update 2

    

Lead

    Seven out of ten of the largest recorded British Columbian fires from 1950 to 2020 occurred within the past decade, with 2017 having the largest of fires in terms of Hectares burned, according to B.C. Wildfire Services.

Excel Workbook Link and Explanation

    From the link to the modified data sheet found here, you will see on the first worksheet all of the raw data collected, organized by size from largest to smallest. The second worksheet contains the top ten fires from the raw files, listing the years of the fire, the causes, and the sizes of each fire in Hectares.

    I had also decided to follow Chad's advice on delving deeper into the data I found, and I had managed to decipher the definitions behind the different zones and fire centers as they related to the data, as well as what was causing the majority of fires. I had also listened to his advice about asking the question of whether or not fire rates had gone up in recent years, and the answer is yes, simply because of my personal discovery of just how many other large fires occurred in the last decade when compared to earlier in history.

Original Dataset Link

    Found here.

News Story/Study Link and Brief Summary

    From this 2017 Global News coverage, which describes two of the larger ongoing fires in British Columbia at the time, it confirms the data that I had brought together because in that coverage, it looks back at previous data which matches with what is on my dataset, including a perfect match on the exact size calculation of the notorious Plateau Fire, the largest of the fires included in my data. It also backs up my claim of how the past decade resulted in some of the greatest recorded fires in history due to the claims as brought up by both academic and on-field sources within the article.

    This 2021 Global News article, which covers the 2021 fire season, also helps to back up my claim that fire rates have gone up significantly, because it references on how rapidly fires in recent times have been able to spread in comparison to the fires in the past, such as in 2018.








Comments

  1. Claudia CulleyNovember 2, 2021 at 1:35 PM

    Hi Kyron! I think you did a great job on this update 2. You used the sorting and filtering functions on excel effectively and found a newsworthy lead from the data. I also think the news article you provided is perfect for this assignment and backs up the patterns reflected in your data. One thing I think you could benefit from is cutting down your lead. I would rewrite it to something along the lines of "More than half of BC's largest forest fires occurred within the past decade." You can also add the rest of the information into a subtitle. Overall I think you have a strong assignment, great job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Trisha MesinaNovember 5, 2021 at 3:52 PM

    Hey Kyron! I think you have done a great job at writing your blog. It was an easy read and you have done a pleasant job at filling us in on what your data is all about and what you had done to it! I agree with Claudia, I think you could make some changes to your lead sentence, I think adding a subtitle would benefit you. I like that you took Chad's advice and responded with your data slice. Maybe you could find out how much it has gone up over the years compared to the past decade by percentage if it's possible. Overall you did a great job yay! Excited for update 3 :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hannah HowardNovember 9, 2021 at 8:28 AM

    I really like what you have discovered for this topic! Your dataset greatly explains the results in your lead. I would suggest to narrow down the words in your lead, as it is a little bit too wordy. But I love your article that you included because it correlates to your dataset which makes it even stronger!

    ReplyDelete

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