|
A '''rating scale''' is a set of categories designed to elicit information about a [[quantitative]] attribute in social science. Common examples are the [[Likert scale]] and 1-10 rating scales for which a person selects the number which is considered to reflect the perceived quality of a product.
This is a list of '''famous [[forest fire]]s''':
==North AmericaBackground ==
{| class="wikitable"
|- bgcolor="#CCCCCC"
! Fire !! Area !! Year !! Size !!Notes
|-
| [[Miramichi Fire]] || [[New Brunswick]] || [[1825]] || 3,000,000 acres (12150 km²) || Killed 160 people
|-
| [[Yachina Fire]] || [[Oregon]] || [[1846]] || 450,000 acres (1,800 km²)
|-
| [[Nestucca Fire]] || [[Oregon]] || [[1853]] || 320,000 acres (1,300 km²)
|-
| [[Silverton Fire]] || [[Oregon]] || [[1865]] || 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km²) || Worst recorded fire in state's history
|-
| [[Coos Fire]] || [[Oregon]] || [[1868]] || 300,000 acres (1,200 km²)
|-
| [[Peshtigo Fire]] || [[Wisconsin]] || [[1871]] || 1,200,000 acres (4900 km²) || Overshadowed by the Great Chicago Fire occurring the same day
|-
| [[Bighorn Fire]] || [[Wyoming]] || [[1876]] || 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) ||
|-
| [[Thumb Fire]] || [[Michigan]] || [[1881]] || 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km²) || Killed 250+ people
|-
| [[Great Fire of 1889]] || [[California]] || [[1889]] || 800,000 acres (3,200 km²) || Largest fire in recorded California history
|-
| [[Hinckley Fire]] || [[Minnesota]] || [[1894]] || 160,000 acres (650 km²) || Killed 418 people and destroyed 12 towns
|-
| [[Adirondack Fire]] || [[New York]] || [[1903]] || 450,000 acres (1,800 km²) ||
|-
| [[Great Fire of 1910]] || [[Idaho]]-[[Montana]] || [[1910]] || 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km²) || Killed 86 people
|-
| [[Cochrane Fire]] || [[Ontario]] || [[1911]] || 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) || Killed 73 people
|-
| [[Cochrane-Matheson Fire]] || [[Ontario]] || [[1916]] || ? || Killed 228 (U.O. 400+) people and destroyed both towns, the former burnt again after just five years.
|-
| [[Cloquet Fire]] || [[Minnesota]]-[[Wisconsin]] || [[1918]] || 100,000 acres (400 km²) || Killed between 400 and 500 people
|-
| [[Mississagi/Chapleau fire]] || [[Ontario]] || [[1948]] || 645,000 acres (2,580 km²) ||
|-
| [[Mann Gulch fire]] || [[Montana]] || [[1949]] || 4,500 acres (18 km²) || Killed 13 firefighters
|-
| [[Capitan Gap fire]] || [[New Mexico]] || [[1950]] || 17,000 acres (69 km²) ||
|-
| [[Tillamook Burn]] || [[Oregon]] || [[1933]], [[1939]], [[1945]], [[1951]] || 355,000 acres total (1,400 km²) || Swept through the same region of Oregon four times
|-
| || [[Maine]] || [[1947]] || 175,000 acres (710 km²) || A series of fires that lasted ten days; 16 people killed
|-
| [[Laguna Fire]] || [[California]] || [[1970]] || 175,425 acres (710 km²) || 382 homes destroyed and 8 people killed; the largest fire in the state's history until the [[Cedar Fire]]
|-
| [[Yellowstone National Park#Forest Fires|Yellowstone National Park fires]] || [[Wyoming]]-[[Montana]] || [[1988]] || 800,000 acres (3,200 km²)
|-
| [[Oakland Hills firestorm]] || [[California]] || [[1991]] || 1,520 acres || Killed 25 and destroyed 3469 homes and apartments within the cities of Oakland and Berkeley
|-
| [[South Canyon fire]] || [[Colorado]] || [[1994]] || || Killed 14 firefighters
|-
| || [[Florida]] || [[1998]] || 300,000 acres (1,200 km²) || 2200 fires, during drought season; burned 150 homes, $390 million timber lost, 80,000 evacuees, $133 million in fire suppression costs
|-
| [[Cerro Grande Fire]] || [[New Mexico]] || [[2000]] || ca. 48,000 acres (190 km²) || Burned about 420 dwellings in [[Los Alamos, New Mexico]], damaged >100 buildings at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]]; $1 billion damage, worst fire in state's recorded history
|-
| [[Mesa Verde National Park]] fire || [[Colorado]] || [[2000]] || ||
|-
| [[Rodeo-Chediski fire]] || [[Arizona]] || [[2002]] || 467,066 acres (1,890 km²) || Threatened, but did not burn the town of [[Show Low, Arizona]]
|-
| [[Hayman Fire]] in [[Pike National Forest]] || [[Colorado]] || [[2002]] || 137,760 acres (557.5 km²) || 9 firefighter deaths, 600 structures fires
|-
| [[Biscuit_Fire|Florence/Sour Biscuit Complex Fire]] || [[Oregon]] || [[2002]] || 499,570 acres (2,000 km²) ||
|-
| [[Aspen Fire]] || [[Arizona]] || [[2003]] || 84,750 acres (343 km²) || Destroyed large portions of [[Summerhaven, Arizona]]
|-
| [[2003 Okanagan Mountain Park Fire|Okanagan Mountain Park Fire]] || [[British Columbia]] || [[2003]] || 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) || Displaced more than 5,000 inhabitants, destroyed dozens of homes and threatened urbanized sections of [[Kelowna, British Columbia|Kelowna]].
|-
| [[Old Fire]] || [[California]] || [[2003]] || 91,281 acres (369.4 km²) || 993 homes destroyed, 6 deaths. Simultaneous with the Cedar Fire (below)
|-
| [[Cedar Fire]] || [[California]] || [[2003]] || 280,278 acres (1,134 km²) || Second-largest fire in California history; burned 2,232 homes and killed 14 in San Diego County. Simultaneous with 15 other fires in [[Southern California]] (including the Old Fire, above) covering 721,791 acres (2,920 km²), killing 24, displacing 120,000 and destroying 3,640 homes. Damage from combined fires estimated at 2 billion [[USD]] (See [[NASA]] images: [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=11814] [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=11799])
|-
| [[Speranza Fire]] || [[California]] || [[2006]] || 25,000 acres || 10 buildings destroyed, 4 deaths.
|}
In [[Psychometrics]], rating scales are often referenced to a statement which expresses an attitude or perception toward something. The most common example of such a rating scale is the Likert scale, in which a person is asked to select a category label from a list indicating the extent of disagreement or agreement with a statement.
<!---==In Africa==--->
<!---==In Asia==--->
The basic feature of any rating scale is that it consists of a number of categories. These are usually assigned integers. For example, an example of the use of a Likert scale is as follows.
==In Australia==
* Black Friday Bushfires of 1939 ([[South Australia]]) ([[Country Fire Service]])
* Black Sunday Bushfires of 1956 (South Australia)
* [[Dwellingup fires]] of 1961 ([[Western Australia]])
* [[Ash Wednesday fires]] of 1980 and 1983 ([[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]] and [[South Australia]]) ([[Country Fire Service]],[[Country Fire Authority]])
* Forest fires in early-[[1993]] in eastern Australia
* The [[November 1997]] fire in the Sydney area ([[New South Wales Rural Fire Service]])
* 2001 - 2002 forest fires in Australia? primarily affected the Sydney area and caused damages to some properties.
* [[Canberra bushfires of 2003]]
* Black Tuesday bushfires of 2005 (Eyre Peninsula South Australia)
:'''Statement:''' I could not live without my iPod.
<!---==In Central America==--->
:'''Response options:'''
==In Europe==
:*1. Strongly Disagree
===Poland===
:*2. Disagree
* [[Kuznia Raciborska Fire|Kuźnia Raciborska Fire]] in [[Poland]], burned 90.62 km² of forest and killed three people (including two firefighers) on [[August 26]], [[1992]].
:*3. Agree
:*4. Strongly Agree
It is common to treat the numbers obtained from a rating scale directly as measurements by calculating averages, or more generally any [[arithmetic]] operations. Doing so is not however justified. In terms of the [[levels of measurement]] proposed by S.S. Stevens, the data are ordinal categorisations. This means, for example, that to agree strongly with the above statement implies a more favourable perception of iPods than does to agree with the statement. However, the numbers are not interval-level measurements in Stevens' schema, which means that equal differences do not represent equal intervals between the degree to which one values iPods. For example, the difference between strong agreement and agreement is not necessarily the same as the difference between disagreement and agreement. Strictly, even demonstrating that categories are ordinal requires empirical evidence based on patterns of responses (Andrich, 1978).
===Greece===
* [[Penteli Fire]] in Greece affected in June and July, [[1995]] in the [[Penteli]] mountains and lasted for almost the weekend from Friday.
* [[1998 forest fires in Greece]], a series of forest fores affected the Athens area, [[Avlona]], [[Taygetus]] and [[Olympus]] mountains and other places. The fire began in the beginning of the summer season.
* [[2000 forest fires in Greece]], a series of forest fires affected Greece including [[Agioi Theodoroi]] and eastern Corinthia at the beginning of [[July 2000]]
* [[2005 East Attica Fire]] in [[Greece]] - Forest fires ravaged East Attica on July 28, 2005 from [[Agia Triada Rafinas]] to west of [[Rafina]]. The fires began at around 11:00 (EET) (8:00 AM GMT) consuming 70 km² of forests, properties and farmlands. The fire spread quickly after a few hours with winds of up to 55 to 70 km/h and spread near the suburban housings of Athens near Rafina causing dense smoke. The fire reached Kallitechnio and the settlements by around 3:30 (EET) and devastated homes leaving some people homeless and evacuated people in areas around Agia Triada Rafinas, Agia Kyriaki Rafinas, Kallitechnio, [[Loutsa]], [[Neos Vourtzas]] and the [[Rafina]] area mostly on the hillside areas. Pine trees were devastated. Firefighters didn't put out the blaze until the winds calmed down around 5:00 (EET). It took hundreds of fire trucks, firefighters, planes, 65 firefighting helicopters from all over the surrounding areas and most of Greece to put out the blaze. A stretch of Marathonos Avenue became closed.
* July 29, 2005 - a day after the enormous Attica fire, another series of fires occurred throughout Greece, entirely in [[Preveza]] including [[Monolithi]] consuming properties and a campground, [[Ioannina]] and [[Xiromeni]] of [[Aitoloakarnania]].
More than one rating scale is required to [[measurement|measure]] an attitude or perception due to the requirement for statistical comparisons between the categories in the [[polytomous Rasch model]] for ordered categories (Andrich, 1978). In terms of [[Classical test theory]], more than one question is required to obtain an index of internal reliability such as [[Cronbach's alpha]] (Cronbach, 1951) which is a basic criterion for assessing the effectiveness of a rating scale and, more generally, a psychometric instrument.
===Italy and France===
* [[2000 fires in Southern Europe]] in July 2000 consumed forests and buildings in southern [[France]], parts of Iberia, [[Corsica]], and most of [[Italy]] including the southern part during the heatwave dominating southern Europe with 40 to 45°C temperatures caused the phenomena.
== Rating scales used online ==
===Spain===
* [[July 2005|July 17, 2005]] - [[Guadalajara (province)|Guadalajara]] province, [[Spain]], a 130 km² forest fire and 11 dead firefighters. Regional responsible of Department of the Environment out of post because of this deadly toll. A [[barbecue]] sparked deadly blazes.
Rating scales are used widely online in an attempt to provide indications of consumer opinions of products. Examples of sites which employ ratings scales are [[IMDb]], [[Epinions.com]], [[Internet Book List]], [[Yahoo! Movies]], [[Amazon.com]], [[BoardGameGeek]], [[TV.com]] and [[Ratings.net]]. The [[Criticker]] website uses a rating scale from 0 to 100 in order to obtain "personalised film recommendations".
==In South America==
*The [[2002]] forest fire in [[Bolivia]]
In almost all cases, online rating scales only allow one rating per user per product, though there are exceptions such as ''Ratings.net'', which allows users to rate products in relation to several qualities. Most online rating facilities also provide few or no qualitative descriptions of the rating categories, although again there are exceptions such as ''Yahoo! Movies'' which labels each of the categories between F and A+ and BoardGameGeek, which provides explicit descriptions of each category from 1 to 10. Often, only the top and bottom category is described, such as on ''IMDb'''s online rating facility.
==In Asia==
With each user rating a product only once, for example in a category from 1 to 10, there is no means for evaluating internal [[reliability (statistics)|reliability]] using an index such as [[Cronbach's alpha]]. It is therefore impossible to evaluate the [[validity]] of the ratings as measures of viewer perceptions. Establishing validity would require establishing both reliability and accuracy (i.e. that the ratings represent what they are supposed to represent).
===Indonesia===
Another fundamental issue is that online ratings usually involve convenience [[sampling (statistics)|sampling]] much like television polls, i.e., they represent only the conglomeration of those inclined to submit ratings.
Forest fires in Indonesia occured annually. When there is a weather pattern disturbance because of strong [[El Nino]], the number and the distribution of forest fires in Indonesia increased significantly. When there is a weather pattern disturbance because of strong [[La Nina]], the number and the distribution of forest fire in Indonesia decreased. An El Nino is usually followed by La Nina on the following year. The strength of disturbance is determined by [[Southern oscillation index]]. Large forest fire in Indonesia because of strong El Nino:
*[[1982]] and [[1983]] - Massive forest fires in Kalimantan and East Sumatra. 36 thousands km² (8.9 million acres) of forest burned down. There are other forest fires in Java and Sulawesi on the same year.
*In [[1987]], [[1991]] and [[1994]], there were large scale forest fires in Kalimantan and East Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi in Indonesia. More than 3,300 km² (815,453 acres) of forest were destroyed by forest fire.
*[[1997]] and [[1998]] - Colossal, unprecedented forest fires in Kalimantan and East Sumatra. 97 thousands km² (24.1 millions acres) of forest were destroyed, more than 2.6 Gigatonnes of Carbon Dioxide was released to the atmosphere. The underground smouldering fire on the peat bogs continue to burn and ignite new forest fire each year during dry season. There are other forest fires in Java and Sulawesi on the same year.
*From [[1999]] to [[2005]]: there was annual forest fires in Kalimantan, Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi. Every year, forest are burned by farmers, plantation owners and continous underground fire (since 1997). 1,345 km² (332,357 acres) of forest were destroyed by forest fire.
Sampling is one factor which can lead to results which have a specific bias or are only relevant to a specific subgroup. To illustrate the importance of such factors, consider an example. Suppose that a film's marketing strategy and reputation is such that 90% of its audience are attracted to the particular kind of film; i.e. it does not appeal to a broad audience. Suppose also that the film is very popular among the audience that does see the film and, in addition, that those who feel most strongly about the film are inclined to rate the film online. This combination may lead to very high ratings of the film which do not generalize beyond the people who actually see the film (or possibly even beyond those who actually rate it).
[[Category:Forestry]]
[[Category:Wildfires]]
Qualitative description of categories is an important feature of a rating scale. For example, if only the points 1-10 are given without description, some people may select 10 rarely whereas other may select the category often. If, instead, "10" is described as "near flawless", the category is more likely to mean the same thing to different people. This applies to all categories, not just the extreme points. Even with category descriptions, some may be harsher raters than others. Rater harshness is also a consideration in marking essays in educational contexts. [http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:o1l_qRDI9QwJ:www.cambridgeesol.org/rs_notes/rs_nts13.pdf+rater+harshness+references&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4].
These issues are also compounded when aggregated statistics such as averages are used for lists and rankings of products. User ratings are at best [[levels of measurement|ordinal]] categorizations. While it is not uncommon to calculate averages or means for such data, doing so cannot be justified because in calculating averages, equal intervals are required to represent the same difference between levels of perceived quality. The key problems with aggregate data based on the kinds of rating scales commonly used online are as follow:
*Averages should not be calculated for data of the kind collected.
*It is usually impossible to evaluate the reliability or validity of user ratings.
*Products are not compared with respect to explicit, let alone common, criteria.
*Only users inclined to submit a rating for a product do so.
*Data are not usually published in a form that permits evaluation of the product ratings.
==References==
* Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. ''Psychometrika, 16'', 297-333.
* Andrich, D. (1978). A rating formulation for ordered response categories. ''Psychometrika'', 43, 357-74.
==See also==
*[[Voting system]]
*[[Rotten Tomatoes]]
*[[Metacritic]]
==External links==
[http://www.rasch-analysis.com/ How to apply Rasch analysis]
[[Category:Psychometrics]]
| 