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PFHydro: A New Watershed-Scale Model for Post-Fire Runoff Simulation

Journal Article · · Environmental Modelling and Software
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [2]
  1. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Sacramento, CA (United States)
  2. U.S. Geological Survey, Sacramento, CA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
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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. In conclusion, the model was successful at simulating SWR behavior.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); U.S. Bureau of Reclamation through the Science and Technology Program; U.S. Bureau of Land Management
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1580997
Journal Information:
Environmental Modelling and Software, Journal Name: Environmental Modelling and Software Journal Issue: C Vol. 123; ISSN 1364-8152
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Post-fire runoff simulation
Soil water repellence
Watershed model
Wildfire effects