Pima County Cultural Resources Management on County Conservation Lands: Predicting Archaeological Sensitivity Zones and Refining Spatial Models

Summary

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) modeling is vital to improve and focus cultural resources management strategies on the approximately 100,000 acres of conservation lands acquired by Pima County since 1997. These lands are dedicated for cultural and biological resource conservation and are the result of lands identified in the Pima County Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (SDCP). The SDCP includes a static model depicting archaeological sensitivity that combines all archaeological site types and time periods together into low, moderate and high archaeological sensitivity zones throughout the County. The SDCP has been used for informing land conservation management decisions including infrastructure placement and ranching operations for mitigating threats to cultural resources by encroaching development. In order to account for the broader spectrum of potential impact agents on cultural resources, including erosion, ecotourism, vandalism, recreational use, and grazing, a newly designed GIS database using dynamic and contemporary data sources will allow us to refine the SDCP model. This poster presents an analysis of cultural resources from two sample conservation land areas in which archaeological sensitivity and threat assessments are modeled and field tested by sample survey to enable informed and efficient land management strategies to better conserve cultural resources.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16275