USGS runoff-generated postfire debris-flow inventory

Inventory description
This data release consists of an inventory of runoff-generated postfire debris-flow observations compiled from burned areas across the western United States. The included table, “USGS_RG_PFDF_Inventory_v1.csv”, contains observations of postfire debris-flow response indicating whether a debris flow did occur (1) or did not occur (0) in a burned watershed in response to a recorded rainstorm. This inventory contains 8981 total observations from 80 wildfire burned areas across Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Of the 8981 total observations, 1140 represent observed debris flows. This inventory is intended to be updated in future years as new data become available.
 
The value "0" in the "Response" column indicates that no true debris flow was observed, but a hydrologic response with lower sediment content may or may not have occurred. To the best of our knowledge, all debris flows represented here were generated by runoff, not by shallow landsliding. The development of this inventory prioritized accuracy of debris-flow identification for flows with known response timing (that is, through field-based methods) over sampling every possible watershed. As a result, these records have only limited spatial and temporal extent, and they should not be taken as a comprehensive record of the hydrologic response of every burned watershed to every storm after each fire. Fields with the value “-9999” indicate data that are not available or do not exist.
 
Each observation of debris-flow response is paired with information on the associated wildfire, observation and rainfall data sources, rainfall measures, and selected terrain variables computed over the upstream watershed. Additional terrain variable values and USGS postfire debris-flow hazard assessment source files are available for most observations from King and others (2025, 2026) or Staley and others (2026). The included “README.txt” file describes the data fields in more detail.

This data release is intended to compile as many runoff-generated postfire debris-flow data as possible in a unified format, and it includes both new information and data from published inventories and scientific journal publications. Previous publications and inventories that provided information for this data release are detailed in the “README.txt” file. All records in the included file, “USGS_RG_PFDF_Inventory_v1.csv”, are credited, according to the individuals, agencies, and/or publications that provided the observation information, in the column labeled “ObservationSource”.
Data Credits
This data release combines debris-flow data collected by USGS with other data collected through the efforts of many individuals and partner organizations over many years. We thank all those who contributed at any level, and we have endeavored to acknowledge each individual and organization alongside every record to which they contributed. Please refer to the “ObservationSource” field in “USGS_RG_PFDF_Inventory_v1.csv” for details. Full references for each cited publication are provided in the “README.txt” file.

References
King, J.M., Kostelnik, J., and Kean, J.W., 2025, 2024 Post-Wildfire Debris-Flow Hazard Assessments: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P13GTMAX.
King, J.M., Kostelnik, J., Kean, J.W., Barnhart, K.R., Graber, A.P., Rengers, F.K., and Thomas, M.A., 2026, Post-Wildfire Debris-Flow Hazard Assessment (PWFDF) Collection: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P14EWYME.
Staley, D.M., Kean, J.W., Kostelnik, J., King, J.M., Jones, E.S., Schmitt, R.G., Rengers, F.K., Thomas, M.A., and Negri, J., 2026, 2013 - 2023 Post-Wildfire Debris-Flow Hazard Assessments: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P142R8E2.