PFHydro: A new watershed-scale model for post-fire runoff simulation
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Abstract
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.
Study Area
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | PFHydro: A new watershed-scale model for post-fire runoff simulation |
| Series title | Environmental Modelling and Software |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.104555 |
| Volume | 123 |
| Year Published | 2020 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Contributing office(s) | California Water Science Center |
| Description | 104555, 15 p. |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| Other Geospatial | Upper Cache Creek Watershed |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |