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Utility of satellite-derived burn severity to study short- and long-term effects of wildfire on streamflow at the basin scale
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2020
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Source: J Hydrology 580: 124244
[PDF-2.74 MB]
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Journal Title:Journal of Hydrology
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NOAA Program & Office:
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Description:We investigated the changes in hydrologic response in a forested catchment impacted by wildfire in Colorado U.S.A. from the storm event to the inter-annual scales. We also evaluated the utility of a remotely-sensed burn severity index to study post-fire shifts in streamflow. At the storm-scale, we evaluated hydrologic shifts through changes in the effective runoff (Q*/PTot), peak streamflow (Qpk) and response time (TR/TB) from multiple hydrographs, while at seasonal and inter-annual-scales we quantified hydrologic shifts through the runoff fraction (Q/PTot) and flow duration curves. Vegetation anomalies were monitored through comparisons of the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) between the burned and a hydrologically-similar, forested, neighboring, unburned catchment. We found short-term acute and long-term chronic transient streamflow shifts from the minute to the inter-annual scales. Flow duration curves indicate an order of magnitude increase in maximum flows. Event-average Q*/PTot increased by two orders of magnitude and Qpk increased by one order of magnitude relative to multiple representative pre-fire events of similar precipitation intensities. Decreases in TR/TB appear to be minimal. At the inter-annual scale, increases in the difference between simultaneous unburned and burned NBR are associated with increases in Q/PTot. A hydrologic recovery pathway is evident resembling a hysteresis effect driven by vegetation re-growth. Results illustrate the non-steady physical processes that increase flash-flooding risks post-fire in mountainous catchments and the utility of ΔNBR as a hydrologic predictor in ungauged watersheds.
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Source:J Hydrology 580: 124244
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Rights Information:Accepted Manuscript
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