Fire scars in northeast Scottsdale/Rio Verde area, Maricopa county: initial characterization, 2001

by Ramón Arrowsmith, Department of Geological Sciences, Arizona State University
with contributions from
Mike Ramsey, U. Pitt
Tamara Misner, U. Pitt
Aaron Redman, Rice U.

as a part of:

Multi-Spectral Remote Sensing of Brush Fire Scars in Arid Urban Regions: Analysis of Future Fire and Flooding Hazards

A project by
Mike Ramsey
and
Ramon Arrowsmith
funded by NASA.

The Image Visualization and Infrared Spectroscopy (IVIS) Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh and the ASU Department of Geological Sciences and Active Tectonics, Quantitative Structural Geology and Geomorphology group

Summary of principal tasks

We chose the study area because it preserves a number of fire scars in an accessible urban fringe area (Figure 1)..
Main tasks (the web pages illustrating some of them are available from the main ASU page for this project: http://activetectonics.la.asu.edu/Fires_and_Floods/index.html):

Figures



Figure 1. Illustration of fire scars in study area (including date when known), main study sites, and geography overlain on Landsat image.


Figure 2. Balloon aerial photograph with annotation depictig the burn edge along the north edge of the Dynamite fire scar. The edge is not sharp, but is transitional with a zone of semi-burned surfaces along the main interface. Based on further consideration of the fire reports, this is the Dynamite fire scar. Note the truck for scale.


Figure 3. Oblique aerial photograph from light plane looking toward the south over the Camp, Dynamite, and Rio fire scars.


Figure 4. Topographic map of Carefree fire scar edge surveyed using GPS total station. Can you see a difference in the topography?


Figure 5. Larger sediment trap (40 cm high, 60 cm wide, 1 m long) built of aluminum by ASU machine shop and Geological Sciences Department staff.
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Pages maintained by Ramón Arrowsmith, Department of Geological Sciences, Arizona State University
Last modified August 25, 2001