Abstract
Wildfire regimes are changing across the globe with several ecosystems witnessing more frequent fires across longer fire seasons. The western United States is one such region. The NASA RECOVER Historic Fires Database (HFD) contains all documented wildfires across the western United States occurring between 1950 and 2019 (n = 55,566). This study analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of these wildfires using ArcGIS Pro Geographic Information System (GIS) software to characterize changes in fire frequency, size, and severity over time. Analysis of annual fire frequency and acres burned reveals a near exponential growth in fire frequency (R2 = 0.71, P < 0.001) and size (R2 = 0.67, P < 0.001) since 1950. A comparison of mean and median acres burned annually suggests the occurrence of mega-fires (wildfires burning more than 100,000 acres) is also increasing. To illustrate this, this study found the mean size of fires occurring in the decade of the 1950s was 1204 acres while in the most recent decade (2010–2019) mean fire size has more than doubled, reaching an average of 3474 acres. The trend in fire severity between 2001 and 2017 used 365 Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) layers calculated using Landsat or Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. Results suggest fire severity has remained relatively stable in light of increasing fire frequency and size, however more research is required to more fully understand changes in fire severity. The results of this study and other related studies are important as they provide useful information to land managers and policy makers regarding the changing wildfire regime currently being witnessed across the western United States.
Highlights
Across the globe, wildfires have become a common event, and while many reports focus on the negative impacts of wildfire, fire plays an essential role in several forest ecosystems
To support well informed decisions and provide information relative to present fire trends, the current study carefully explored historic wildfires using the Geographic Information System (GIS) and earth observing satellite system data available through the Historic Wildfires Database (HFD) [30]
The Historic Fires Database (HFD) is shared and available online by visiting https://giscenter.isu.edu/research/Techpg/HFD/ index.htm (Supplementary Materials) The HFD provides as comprehensive as possible spatiotemporal documentation of all recorded wildfires across the western United States between 1950 and 2019
Summary
Wildfires have become a common event, and while many reports focus on the negative impacts of wildfire, fire plays an essential role in several forest ecosystems. Robichaud et al [13] compiled a near comprehensive description of possible ecosystem impacts that can occur as the result of a wildfire. The HFD is shared and available online by visiting https://giscenter.isu.edu/research/Techpg/HFD/ index.htm (Supplementary Materials) The HFD provides as comprehensive as possible spatiotemporal documentation of all recorded wildfires across the western United States between 1950 and 2019. The authors used these data to quantitatively describe and characterize annual and decadal trends of fire frequency and size. This study can be used to support land managers and policy makers in their future recommendations
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