Runoff increases after wildfires that burn vegetation and create a condition of soil-water repellence (SWR). A new post-fire watershed hydrological model, PFHydro, was created to explicitly simulate vegetation interception and SWR effects for four burn severity categories: high, medium, low severity and unburned. The model was applied to simulate post-fire runoff from the Upper Cache Creek Watershed in California, USA. Nash–Sutcliffe modeling efficiency (NSE) was used to assess model performance. The NSE was 0.80 and 0.88 for pre-fire water years (WY) 2000 and 2015, respectively. NSE was 0.88 and 0.93 for WYs 2016 (first year post-fire) and 2017 respectively. The simulated percentage of surface runoff in total runoff of WY 2016 was about six times that of pre-fire WY 2000 and three times that of WY 2015. The modeling results suggest that SWR is an important factor for post-fire runoff generation. The model was successful at simulating SWR behavior.
Citation Information
| Publication Year | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Title | PFHydro: A new watershed-scale model for post-fire runoff simulation |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.104555 |
| Authors | Jun Wang, Michelle A. Stern, Vanessa M. King, Charles N. Alpers, Nigel W. T. Quinn, Alan L. Flint, Lorraine E. Flint |
| Publication Type | Article |
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Series Title | Environmental Modelling and Software |
| Index ID | 70223156 |
| Record Source | USGS Publications Warehouse |
| USGS Organization | California Water Science Center |