Spatial pattern of wildfire occurrences in Alabama, USA

Abstract

Identifying the spatial pattern of wildfire occurrences and its relationships with environmental and social conditions at a state and county scale may help to reinforce strategic and diverse solutions in wildfire and land management throughout different environmental conditions and management practices. In this study, a dataset of wildfire occurrences from 1999 to 2004 in Alabama, USA, was used to analyze the spatial distribution of wildfire occurrences and the relationships with environmental factors (climate, forest types and physiographic zones) and the human dimension (total population, road length and land ownership). A spatial pattern existed for wildfire occurrence and density at county level. It appeared that there were more wildfire occurrences in central Alabama within the latitude 32°–35°N and longitude 86°–88°W, but there was no significant difference in wildfire density (wildfire occurrences at unit area) among five general physiographic zones. The relationship between each climate factor and a wildfire occurrence was not significant. As for different forest types, significantly higher wildfire density only occurred in Oak‐Pine forest in comparison with Longleaf‐Slash Pine forest. Most wildfires occurred in the counties with population size between 10,000 and 63,000 or total road length from 250 to 320 km. There was significant higher wildfire density in the national forest area than at the area without national forest. These results may have implications for strategic policy‐making for integrated wildfire management in this region.