Development of a database to analyze historical fire activity in southern Arizona: A prototype from Saguaro National Park

Abstract

With Anglo settlement of southern Arizona in the late 1800s, fire regimes were altered dramatically. Currently, desert scrub has experienced a dramatic rise in frequency and size of wildfire which may remove fire-intolerant perennials that define the community structure. On the contrary, woodlands and forests now contain excessive fuel build up and require prescribed burning to restore the system's balance. These opposing attitudes reflect the conundrum of how to manage naturally occurring fires, or where and when to initiate prescribed burning to recreate each vegetation community's "natural" fire regime. To resolve this dilemma, there is need to discern natural fire histories by collecting specific baseline data such as where, when and how the landscape has burned. This research has been focused on the design and development of a relational database, and the incorporation of a geographic information system to develop a system that can be used to fulfill this need.