Inventory of 227 postfire debris-flow volumes for 34 fires in the western United States

Description
This data release contains a dataset of 227 postfire debris-flow volumes compiled from 34 burn areas across six states in the western United States. Specifically, it includes debris-flow volumes collected from the following fires:


Arizona: 2010 Schultz, 2011 Horseshoe 2, 2011 Monument, 2011 Wallow, 2017 Frye, 2019 Museum, 2019 Woodbury, 2020 Bush, 2021 Flag, 2021 Horton, 2021 Telegraph, and 2022 Pipeline Fires
California: 2003 Cedar, 2003 Grand Prix, 2003 Old, 2005 Harvard, 2008 Sayre, 2009 Station, 2017 Thomas, 2020 Apple, 2020 Carmel, 2020 El Dorado, 2021 Dixie, and 2022 Mosquito Fires
Colorado: 2002 Coal Seam, 2002 Missionary Ridge, 2020 Cameron Peak, and 2020 Grizzly Creek Fires
New Mexico: 2018 Buzzard, 2020 Tadpole, 2021 Three Rivers, and 2022 Hermits Peak Fires
Utah: 2003 Farmington Fire
Washington: 2021 Cub Creek 2 Fire

This dataset represents the largest known collection of postfire debris-flow volumes with associated rainfall data in the western United States and consists of both previously published and newly collected volume data.

The included file, “DebrisFlowVolume_Inventory.csv,” contains 227 records of postfire debris-flow volume. Each record represents the volume of sediment deposited by a single debris flow downstream of a watershed outlet. Volume measurements do not consider the volume of water mobilized, nor any sediment that was mobilized and then deposited upstream of a watershed outlet. Each volume record also includes 51 fields describing the location and timing of the associated debris flow, details on the associated fire and triggering rainstorm, and rainfall climatology, terrain, and fire severity metrics for the associated watershed. The included “README.txt” file contains detailed information on how each field was calculated, as well as descriptions and units for each field.

Every volume record listed in “DebrisFlowVolume_Inventory.csv” is associated with a watershed ID that identifies the watershed that produced the associated debris flow. Most watersheds included in this inventory produced only one debris flow with a measured volume and are listed only once. However, there were scenarios where the same watershed produced multiple debris flows with separate volume measurements. In these scenarios, the watershed ID is listed multiple times, each with a separate volume and date of debris-flow occurrence. As a result, there are 227 volume records, but only 195 unique watershed IDs listed in “DebrisFlowVolume_Inventory.csv.” The watershed ID is also used to match the information in “DebrisFlowVolume_Inventory.csv” with the corresponding watershed polygons in “Volume_Watersheds.shp.” This shapefile contains spatial data for all 195 watersheds referenced in the CSV, along with their associated watershed IDs (called WshedIDs in this file), geographic locations, and fire names. All fields contained in the “Volume_Watersheds.shp” attribute table are described in detail in “README.txt.”

If a volume was compiled from a previously published source, then “DebrisFlowVolume_Inventory.csv” and “Volume_Watersheds.shp” also contain information regarding its original source. Specifically, both files contain the doi for the original study and a “source name.” The source name refers to the name of the watershed used in the original publication or database and can be used to match watersheds from previous studies to the appropriate watershed IDs used in this data release. Full references for the sources included in “DebrisFlowVolume_Inventory.csv” and “Volume_Watersheds.shp” can be found in “README.txt.” For volumes that have not been previously published, the source is listed as “This Study” and the source name is listed as “N/A.” Regardless of whether each volume measurement was newly collected or previously published, every other data field included in “DebrisFlowVolume_Inventory.csv” and “Volume_Watersheds.shp” was calculated as part of this data release.

 
Data Credits
We acknowledge the contributions of our colleagues who provided debris-flow volume data, including Rebecca Beers (Arizona Geological Survey), Don Lindsay and Paul Richardson (California Geological Survey), Luke McGuire (University of Arizona), Olivia Hoch and Jaime Kostelnik (U.S. Geological Survey), and the Post-Wildfire Debris Flow Program at the Washington Geological Survey.