Anne C. Tillery
Anne Tillery is a desert geomorphologist serving as the Acting Deputy Director of the New Mexico Water Science Center. She supports staff in achieving the science priorities of the center and its cooperators.
Colorado Basin ASIST
Colorado Basin ASIST
The USGS Colorado River Basin Actionable and Strategic Integrated Science and Technology (ASIST) initiative is a landscape scale project to accelerate interdisciplinary science and application of advanced technology for stakeholder-driven challenges in the Colorado River Basin.
New Mexico StreamStats
New Mexico StreamStats
StreamStats for New Mexico was developed in cooperation with the New Mexico Department of Transportation and the U.S Forest Service.
Anne Tillery has 24 years with the Department of the Interior, starting as a Park Ranger with NPS and moving to the USGS as a student hydrologic aid while in college. She's been with the New Mexico Water Science Center since 2007, where she began as a project scientist and progressed into quality assurance and management roles. She has 20 years of experience studying surface water and geomorphic processes of the Southwest.
As a scientist, her research focused on the hydrology, hydraulics, and geomorphology of flooding in desert ephemeral channels and of debris flows following wildfires. During her 18 years with the USGS in New Mexico, she has authored dozens of publications on subjects related to desert geomorphic and hydrologic processes, including post-wildfire hazards, among other topics - some winning national awards.
As a manager, Anne has focused on building the profile of the NMWSC among partners throughout New Mexico and the Colorado River Basin. Anne strives for clear communication of science and the preservation of scientific integrity.
Science and Products
Implementing a Web-based Streamflow Statistics Tool for New Mexico (StreamStats)
Estimates of streamflow are needed for a wide variety of applications, including water-resources planning and management, flood-plain mapping, and instream flow determinations. Surface water is the primary source of water for irrigators along major stream corridors in New Mexico and is increasingly being utilized by large municipalities. While streamflow statistics for gaged sites are readily...
Changes in Watershed Hydrologic Response Time with Post-wildfire Changes in Vegetation and Surface Fuels Along a Severely-burned, High-desert Canyon, Bandelier National Monument, NM
Flash flooding can be a destructive and life-threatening response of watersheds to intense rainfall events, particularly in sparsely vegetated, or burned watersheds. Studies have been conducted to estimate the magnitude of hydrologic responses of burned watersheds to rainfall events, however the time that it takes a flood to travel through a burned watershed and reach a critical or populated area...
Prewildfire Assessments of Postwildfire Debris-Flow Hazards
Debris flows are high-density slurries of water, rock fragments, soil, and mud that can have enormous destructive power. Wildfire can drastically increase the probability of debris flows in landscapes that have otherwise been stable. In 2010, the USGS developed the Cannon model to estimate postwildfire debris-flow probabilities and volumes in burned areas. In 2013, with the help of U.S. Forest...
Debris flows and Floods from Extreme Precipitation in September 2013, Gila National Forest, NM
A record-breaking rainstorm in Glenwood, New Mexico and the surrounding areas occurred in September, 2013 leading to widespread and destructive flooding and debris flows, including watersheds burned the previous year by the Whitewater-Baldy Complex wildfire. In the area of the Whitewater-Baldy burn scar, a highway was overtopped by flash flooding on Whitewater Creek. Many side canyon tributaries...
Postwildfire Debris-Flow Hazards
Wildfire is a natural process in forest ecosystems, and occurs with varying frequencies and severities depending on landscape characteristics, climatic conditions, and the historical fire regime. Although attention often is focused on the potential damages from wildfire in the wildland-urban interface, wildfire also presents a threat to critical infrastructure including flood water conveyances and...
Bandelier National Monument Postwildfire Flood Support
In the summer of 2011, the Las Conchas Fire burned 156,593 acres in the Jemez Mountains in northern NM including the upper watersheds of Frijoles and Capulin Canyons in Bandelier National Monument. The drastic removal of vegetation in the upper watersheds of these popular tourist destinations left them susceptible to dangerous and record breaking floods. As long as the threat of large post...
Floods Analysis
Accurate estimations of flood discharges at bridge or culvert sites is required to provide cost-effective design of that structure. Streamflow-gaging stations, for which flood data are available, are usually located in major perennial drainage basins that are not representative of sites where common bridge and culvert designs are needed. In 1942, the USGS, in cooperation with the New Mexico...
Analysis of the Magnitude and Frequency of Peak Discharge in the Navajo Nation and Surrounding Region, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico
Estimates of the magnitude and frequency of peak discharges on unregulated streams at gaging stations or ungaged stream sites in the Navajo Nation in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico are necessary for flood hazard mapping.
Science and Products
Implementing a Web-based Streamflow Statistics Tool for New Mexico (StreamStats)
Estimates of streamflow are needed for a wide variety of applications, including water-resources planning and management, flood-plain mapping, and instream flow determinations. Surface water is the primary source of water for irrigators along major stream corridors in New Mexico and is increasingly being utilized by large municipalities. While streamflow statistics for gaged sites are readily...
Changes in Watershed Hydrologic Response Time with Post-wildfire Changes in Vegetation and Surface Fuels Along a Severely-burned, High-desert Canyon, Bandelier National Monument, NM
Flash flooding can be a destructive and life-threatening response of watersheds to intense rainfall events, particularly in sparsely vegetated, or burned watersheds. Studies have been conducted to estimate the magnitude of hydrologic responses of burned watersheds to rainfall events, however the time that it takes a flood to travel through a burned watershed and reach a critical or populated area...
Prewildfire Assessments of Postwildfire Debris-Flow Hazards
Debris flows are high-density slurries of water, rock fragments, soil, and mud that can have enormous destructive power. Wildfire can drastically increase the probability of debris flows in landscapes that have otherwise been stable. In 2010, the USGS developed the Cannon model to estimate postwildfire debris-flow probabilities and volumes in burned areas. In 2013, with the help of U.S. Forest...
Debris flows and Floods from Extreme Precipitation in September 2013, Gila National Forest, NM
A record-breaking rainstorm in Glenwood, New Mexico and the surrounding areas occurred in September, 2013 leading to widespread and destructive flooding and debris flows, including watersheds burned the previous year by the Whitewater-Baldy Complex wildfire. In the area of the Whitewater-Baldy burn scar, a highway was overtopped by flash flooding on Whitewater Creek. Many side canyon tributaries...
Postwildfire Debris-Flow Hazards
Wildfire is a natural process in forest ecosystems, and occurs with varying frequencies and severities depending on landscape characteristics, climatic conditions, and the historical fire regime. Although attention often is focused on the potential damages from wildfire in the wildland-urban interface, wildfire also presents a threat to critical infrastructure including flood water conveyances and...
Bandelier National Monument Postwildfire Flood Support
In the summer of 2011, the Las Conchas Fire burned 156,593 acres in the Jemez Mountains in northern NM including the upper watersheds of Frijoles and Capulin Canyons in Bandelier National Monument. The drastic removal of vegetation in the upper watersheds of these popular tourist destinations left them susceptible to dangerous and record breaking floods. As long as the threat of large post...
Floods Analysis
Accurate estimations of flood discharges at bridge or culvert sites is required to provide cost-effective design of that structure. Streamflow-gaging stations, for which flood data are available, are usually located in major perennial drainage basins that are not representative of sites where common bridge and culvert designs are needed. In 1942, the USGS, in cooperation with the New Mexico...
Analysis of the Magnitude and Frequency of Peak Discharge in the Navajo Nation and Surrounding Region, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico
Estimates of the magnitude and frequency of peak discharges on unregulated streams at gaging stations or ungaged stream sites in the Navajo Nation in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico are necessary for flood hazard mapping.