Increased fire frequency has accompanied increased human development in the northeast Phoenix metropolitan region from 1985 to 1998. Fire scars (red polygons) are displayed on a land cover classification base. Time series is 1985 (A); 1990 (B); 1993 (C); and 1998 (D). Land cover types associated with human activities - blue; actively photosynthesizing vegetation - green; undisturbed desert - light brown (Wentz et al. 2001).

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