The USGS produces postfire debris-flow hazard assessments for recently burned areas, estimating likelihood, volume, and combined hazard for a variety of rainfall scenarios. They also define rainfall thresholds needed to trigger debris flows at specific probability levels. This page describes software packages designed to (1) implement these hazard assessments, and (2) facilitate debris-flow research. All of the software packages on this page are open-source and publicly available, so researchers and emergency managers may find them useful for their own purposes.
Table of Contents
Wildcat: Command line tool to assess and map postfire debris-flow hazards
pfdf: Python library to facilitate postfire hazard assessments and research
ocelote: Operational implementation of USGS postfire debris-flow hazard assessments
pwfdf-api: Search, query, and download official USGS hazard assessments
Custom Assessments
The following two packages provide tools for users who are interested in producing hazard assessments, either for management or research purposes.
Wildcat
The wildcat package provides a tool to assess and map postfire debris-flow hazard assessments. If you want to produce your own hazard assessments, then wildcat is usually the best place to start. The package may be run from the command line or Python and includes routines to:
- Preprocess input datasets
- Design stream segment networks
- Run hazard assessment models, and
- Export results to standard GIS formats.
By default, wildcat produces assessments in the USGS style, but users can also configure the package to run with alternate settings. We recommend reading the wildcat documentation for installation and usage instructions, and the source code is available in the source repository.
Pfdf
The pfdf package is a Python library with routines to facilitate postfire debris-flow hazard assessments and research. The library is intended for researchers and developers who want to implement frameworks outside the scope of standard wildcat assessments. Pfdf includes routines to:
- Download commonly used datasets,
- Analyze watersheds,
- Characterize stream segment networks,
- Run published hazard assessment models, and
- Export results to common GIS formats
All routines are optional and may be configured for a variety of analyses and assessment styles. We note that some Python coding experience is required to use the routines in this package. We recommend reading the pfdf documentation for installation and usage instructions, and the source code is available in the source repository.
Official USGS Assessments
The following two package provide tools for accessing and understanding the PWFDF collection, the USGS’s official archive of postfire debris-flow hazard assessments produced since 2025.
Pwfdf-api
The pwfdf-api package provides a tool to search, filter, and download hazard assessments from the PWFDF collection. The package may be run from the command line or within Python, and it is intended to support programmatic connections with the assessment archive. The package includes functions to:
- Search the PWFDF collection for assessments that match various criteria,
- Download assessment datasets, and
- Stream assessment metadata
We recommend reading the pwfdf-api documentation for installation and usage instructions, and the source code is available in the source repository.
Ocelote
The ocelote package is the USGS’s operational codebase for producing postfire debris-flow hazard assessments. All assessments in the PWFDF collection are produced via this package. Ocelote uses the wildcat package to implement hazard assessments, and provides additional routines to (1) enforce the PWFDF data specification, and (2) upload assessments to USGS assets. Although the package is primarily intended for USGS personnel, other parties may find the source code useful as a reference for the code used to produce official assessments. If you interested in producing your own hazard assessments, but are not a member of the USGS, we recommend using the wildcat package instead of ocelote.
The USGS produces postfire debris-flow hazard assessments for recently burned areas, estimating likelihood, volume, and combined hazard for a variety of rainfall scenarios. They also define rainfall thresholds needed to trigger debris flows at specific probability levels. This page describes software packages designed to (1) implement these hazard assessments, and (2) facilitate debris-flow research. All of the software packages on this page are open-source and publicly available, so researchers and emergency managers may find them useful for their own purposes.
Table of Contents
Wildcat: Command line tool to assess and map postfire debris-flow hazards
pfdf: Python library to facilitate postfire hazard assessments and research
ocelote: Operational implementation of USGS postfire debris-flow hazard assessments
pwfdf-api: Search, query, and download official USGS hazard assessments
Custom Assessments
The following two packages provide tools for users who are interested in producing hazard assessments, either for management or research purposes.
Wildcat
The wildcat package provides a tool to assess and map postfire debris-flow hazard assessments. If you want to produce your own hazard assessments, then wildcat is usually the best place to start. The package may be run from the command line or Python and includes routines to:
- Preprocess input datasets
- Design stream segment networks
- Run hazard assessment models, and
- Export results to standard GIS formats.
By default, wildcat produces assessments in the USGS style, but users can also configure the package to run with alternate settings. We recommend reading the wildcat documentation for installation and usage instructions, and the source code is available in the source repository.
Pfdf
The pfdf package is a Python library with routines to facilitate postfire debris-flow hazard assessments and research. The library is intended for researchers and developers who want to implement frameworks outside the scope of standard wildcat assessments. Pfdf includes routines to:
- Download commonly used datasets,
- Analyze watersheds,
- Characterize stream segment networks,
- Run published hazard assessment models, and
- Export results to common GIS formats
All routines are optional and may be configured for a variety of analyses and assessment styles. We note that some Python coding experience is required to use the routines in this package. We recommend reading the pfdf documentation for installation and usage instructions, and the source code is available in the source repository.
Official USGS Assessments
The following two package provide tools for accessing and understanding the PWFDF collection, the USGS’s official archive of postfire debris-flow hazard assessments produced since 2025.
Pwfdf-api
The pwfdf-api package provides a tool to search, filter, and download hazard assessments from the PWFDF collection. The package may be run from the command line or within Python, and it is intended to support programmatic connections with the assessment archive. The package includes functions to:
- Search the PWFDF collection for assessments that match various criteria,
- Download assessment datasets, and
- Stream assessment metadata
We recommend reading the pwfdf-api documentation for installation and usage instructions, and the source code is available in the source repository.
Ocelote
The ocelote package is the USGS’s operational codebase for producing postfire debris-flow hazard assessments. All assessments in the PWFDF collection are produced via this package. Ocelote uses the wildcat package to implement hazard assessments, and provides additional routines to (1) enforce the PWFDF data specification, and (2) upload assessments to USGS assets. Although the package is primarily intended for USGS personnel, other parties may find the source code useful as a reference for the code used to produce official assessments. If you interested in producing your own hazard assessments, but are not a member of the USGS, we recommend using the wildcat package instead of ocelote.