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Wildfire, drought, and insects are reshaping forests in the Western United States in a manner that is being exacerbated by warming temperatures. Disturbance events such as these can significantly alter the amount of land that is covered by forest in an area or region. Consequently, changes in forest cover from disturbance can impact water runoff conditions leading to dangerous flooding, erosion, and water quality issues. These events can be costly for society. In response, many land managers are using forest thinning and prescribed burning practices to reduce disturbance impacts, especially those that are caused by high-severity wildfire. In contrast to the wealth of research on the advantages of forest thinning...
Categories: Project;
Types: Map Service,
OGC WFS Layer,
OGC WMS Layer,
OGC WMS Service;
Tags: 2023,
CASC,
Data Visualization & Tools,
Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather,
Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather, All tags...
Fire,
Fire,
Forests,
Forests,
Landscapes,
Landscapes,
Other Water,
Other Water,
Projects by Region,
Science Tools for Managers,
South Central,
South Central CASC,
Water, Coasts and Ice,
Water, Coasts and Ice, Fewer tags
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The Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers provide drinking water to millions of people in the Southwest and South Central U.S. Snowmelt accounts for 70% of streamflow in these rivers, meaning that water use downstream is directly impacted by snow accumulation and snowmelt patterns in the mountains. Mountain forests are a critical part of the hydrologic cycle that feeds these rivers, providing water supply and storage. However wildfire, which is becoming more common as temperatures rise, can disrupt the role of mountain forests in the hydrologic cycle. Uncertainty about the interactions between wildfire and snow-water, and how these interactions may change as climate conditions shift, impedes effective water resource planning...
Categories: Project;
Types: Map Service,
OGC WFS Layer,
OGC WMS Layer,
OGC WMS Service;
Tags: 2017,
CASC,
Completed,
Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather,
Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather, All tags...
Fire,
Fire,
Forests,
Forests,
Landscapes,
Landscapes,
Other Water,
Other Water,
Projects by Region,
Rivers, Streams and Lakes,
Rivers, Streams and Lakes,
South Central,
South Central CASC,
Water, Coasts and Ice,
Water, Coasts and Ice,
forest disturbance; forest fire; forest hydrology; forest-snow interactions, Fewer tags
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Snow and watershed models typically do not account for forest structure and shading; therefore, they display substantial uncertainty when attempting to account for forest change or when comparing hydrological response between forests with varying characteristics. This study collected snow water equivalent (SWE) measurements in a snow-dominated forest in Colorado, the United States, with variable canopy structure. The SWE measurements were integrated with 1 m Lidar derived canopy structure metrics and incoming solar radiation to create empirical SWE offset equations for four canopy structure groupings (forest gaps, south-facing forest edges, north-facing forest edges, and the interior forest) that varied in size...
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