Wildlife
Animals and insects that can bite, sting, charge, transmit disease, or otherwise injure people.
Examples: rattlesnakes, bears, sharks, bees, aggressive animals, disease vectors
Weather
Storms, lightning, extreme temperatures, snow, ice, wind, and rapidly changing conditions.
Examples: lightning, extreme heat, blizzards, high wind, hail, severe storms
Fire
Wildfires, prescribed burns, smoke, evacuation zones, and dangerous fire conditions.
Examples: wildfire, smoke, active burn areas, evacuation zones, burn bans
Water
Flooding, currents, rip tides, dangerous surf, water contamination, and drowning risk.
Examples: flash floods, rip currents, high surf, contamination, thin ice
Terrain
Cliffs, unstable ground, rockfall, avalanches, landslides, trail damage, and low visibility.
Examples: rockfall, unstable cliffs, landslides, avalanches, trail washouts
People
Violence, threatening behavior, unsafe crowds, criminal activity, and avoid-area reports.
Examples: threatening behavior, violent incidents, unsafe crowds, restricted areas
Infrastructure
Road closures, washouts, bridge damage, power lines, utilities, construction, and structural failures.
Examples: road collapse, bridge damage, downed power lines, utility failures
Plant
Poisonous plants, toxic mushrooms, thorns, irritants, spores, and other botanical hazards.
Examples: poison oak, toxic mushrooms, thorn hazards, irritating sap, harmful spores
Three-level classification
Every report records the broad family, a narrower subcategory, and the exact hazard. This provides enough structure for useful filtering without forcing users through a complicated technical form.
- Level 1: Wildlife
- Level 2: Reptiles
- Level 3: Rattlesnake
Other examples include Water → Ocean / Surf → Rip Current; Terrain → Rock / Ground → Landslide; Plant → Toxic Mushrooms → Poisonous Mushroom; and Infrastructure → Roads → Road Washout.
Severity is separate from type
The same hazard can create different levels of danger depending on distance, scale, conditions, exposure, and confidence. Severity should therefore be represented separately from the taxonomy.