Postfire Landslide Monitoring Station: "Chips" (2021 Dixie Fire) near Belden, CA
Wildfire can increase landslide susceptibility in mountainous terrain. The USGS maintains postfire landslide monitoring stations to track hillslope hydrologic conditions in the years following fire.
Recent Conditions
Instrumentation was installed in the autumn following the 2021 Dixie Fire and are used to monitor and detect changes in local hillslope hydrologic conditions. Soil-water content, soil suction, and groundwater pressure are measured in a sensor nest on a hillslope. Data for the site include:
- Rainfall
- Battery Voltage
- Air temperature and relative humidity
- Soil-water content, soil suction, groundwater pressure head, and soil temperature
Data are recorded every minute and updated on the graph every 60 minutes.
Project Background
The 2021 Dixie Fire burned nearly one million acres in northern California, including large portions of the Feather River Canyon. An emergency assessment of post-fire debris-flow hazards (USGS, 2021) indicated that numerous drainages across the extensive burn area have a high susceptibility to debris flows. Evidence of past landslide activity in the region following the 2012 Chips Fire (which was reburned by the 2021 Dixie Fire) suggests debris flows were triggered by both distributed runoff and erosion and shallow landslides. Preliminary analysis of initiation sites also suggests the locations of mass movement were correlated with bedrock lithology. In the autumn following the 2021 Dixie Fire, the USGS Landslide Hazards Program installed two hillslope hydrologic monitoring stations in contrasting soil types to investigate if one soil type is more susceptible to post-fire mass movement than the other. These stations, which recorded the rainfall intensity-duration control of debris flows soon after the wildfire (Thomas et al. 2023, Kostelnik et al. 2023), will inform how soils information could be incorporated into future hazard models and will also be used to test a new physically based modeling framework for the change in rainfall thresholds with time following wildfire and with style of initiation (Thomas et al., 2021).
Postfire debris-flow hazards
Wildfire can increase landslide susceptibility in mountainous terrain. The USGS maintains postfire landslide monitoring stations to track hillslope hydrologic conditions in the years following fire.
Recent Conditions
Instrumentation was installed in the autumn following the 2021 Dixie Fire and are used to monitor and detect changes in local hillslope hydrologic conditions. Soil-water content, soil suction, and groundwater pressure are measured in a sensor nest on a hillslope. Data for the site include:
- Rainfall
- Battery Voltage
- Air temperature and relative humidity
- Soil-water content, soil suction, groundwater pressure head, and soil temperature
Data are recorded every minute and updated on the graph every 60 minutes.
Project Background
The 2021 Dixie Fire burned nearly one million acres in northern California, including large portions of the Feather River Canyon. An emergency assessment of post-fire debris-flow hazards (USGS, 2021) indicated that numerous drainages across the extensive burn area have a high susceptibility to debris flows. Evidence of past landslide activity in the region following the 2012 Chips Fire (which was reburned by the 2021 Dixie Fire) suggests debris flows were triggered by both distributed runoff and erosion and shallow landslides. Preliminary analysis of initiation sites also suggests the locations of mass movement were correlated with bedrock lithology. In the autumn following the 2021 Dixie Fire, the USGS Landslide Hazards Program installed two hillslope hydrologic monitoring stations in contrasting soil types to investigate if one soil type is more susceptible to post-fire mass movement than the other. These stations, which recorded the rainfall intensity-duration control of debris flows soon after the wildfire (Thomas et al. 2023, Kostelnik et al. 2023), will inform how soils information could be incorporated into future hazard models and will also be used to test a new physically based modeling framework for the change in rainfall thresholds with time following wildfire and with style of initiation (Thomas et al., 2021).