This step involves:

• Assessing the ecological, social and economic roles of fire within a given area of interest;
  
• Determining the level and sources of fire-related threats and the degree and trend of ecosystem degradation or improvement; and
  
• Understanding fuels, their related fire behavior and potential fire effects.
  

Assessing the Ecological Role of Fire
It is essential to identify and understand how ecosystems vary in their propensity to burn and in their post-burn responses. Ecosystems can be classified as fire-dependent, fire-influenced, fire-sensitive and fire-independent. Integrated fire management planning may have to address issues related to two or more of these categories, and take into account the dynamic relationships among them. For example, fires originating in fire-maintained ecosystems may enter, affect the boundary of, or limit the extent of fire-influenced and fire-sensitive ecosystems. Boundaries will shift in response to changing incidence and season of ignitions, and with climatic trends. Different strategies may be needed in different parts of the conservation area to maintain desired examples of each ecosystem.

Assessing the Social and Economic Role of Fire
Humans have been affecting fire regimes for millennia. People burn for a variety of reasons, oftentimes to meet basic needs related to survival. For example, people use fire to facilitate hunting; increase the availability of plants used for food, forage for domestic animals, or other needs (e.g., fiber); clear vegetation for agriculture; control pests; ease travel; and communicate over long distances. Managing such fire uses requires an understanding of how and why different cultural groups use fire, how economic incentives affect decisions about land use and hence burning, and how government policies affect human attitudes about fire.

Assessing Fuels and Fire Behavior
A clear understanding of basic fuel characteristics and fire behavior allows one to manage the effects of fire. Desired outcomes may include containing and controlling fires, reducing fire intensity, and manipulating fuels and fire behavior to produce pre-determined effects (e.g., killing invasive shrubs in a grassland or stimulating reproduction in fire-dependent vegetation).

Assessing Fire-Related Threats
Fire interacts with a number of other conservation issues that should be evaluated during the assessment phase. Examples of related issues include climate change, agricultural and grazing practices, forestry and other extractive land uses, landscape fragmentation, and the introduction and spread of non-native plants.