Data Supporting a Physics-Based Fire Behavior Simulation Model to Predict Burn Severity and Post-Fire Debris Flow Hazards

Post-wildfire flooding and debris flows pose a threat to ecosystems and infrastructure. As the frequency and size of severe wildfires increase, there is a growing need for predictive debris flow hazard modeling in unburned but fire-prone landscapes. However, no crosswalks have been established between physics-based models of fire behavior and the remotely sensed burn severity inputs needed for debris flow modeling. Here, we explore this connection by creating a large ensemble of fire behavior simulations using QUIC-Fire – a fast-running three-dimensional fire model – in basins across five major-disaster wildfires in California and Washington.

This data release contains the sample sites simulated in QUIC-Fire, simulation input parameters, and summarized simulation outputs used in our statistical modeling.

Child Item One: "Site Selection Data for Physics-Based Fire Behavior Simulation Model to Predict Burn Severity and Post-Fire Debris Flow Hazards". The data include 1) overview of the 100 selected sample half-basins, 2) overview of the four sampled half-basins to correct of malfunctioning QUIC-Fire simulations, 3) ranges of surface fuel moisture content used to parameterized QUIC-Fire simulations, 4) QUIC-Fire simulation outputs summarized vertically for each x-y grid cell, 5) shapefiles of spatial bounds of the sampled half-basin within each sampled fire.

Child Item Two: "Outputs from Physics-Based Fire Behavior Simulation Model to Predict Burn Severity and Post-Fire Debris Flow Hazards". The data include 1) QUIC-Fire simulation outputs summarized vertically across the simulation domain, 2) QUIC-Fire simulation outputs for four simulations used to replace malfunctioning QUIC-Fire simulations; summarize vertically across the simulation domain, and 3) QUIC-Fire simulation outputs (including corrected simulations) summarized horizontally and vertically across the simulation domain.