Climate, Wildfire, and Erosion Data, Western US

Publication Date

2017-09-07

Start Date

2001

End Date

2050

Sankey, J.B., 2017, Climate, wildfire, and erosion data, western US: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7BV7DS8.

Type: Related Primary Publication

The data were used in an ensemble modelling approach to examine how post-fire sedimentation might change in western USA watersheds with future fire. The data were synthesized to project sediment yield from future fires for 471 watersheds through the year 2050 at the hydrologic unit 8 (HUC8) scale in the western USA. The estimates of first-year post-fire hillslope soil erosion in Mg/ha calculated from GeoWEPP were summarized by the burned area (ha) for each decade, climate scenario, and HUC8 watershed to generate estimates and maps of future post-fire sediment yield by decade. Note that the approach only predicts the post-fire yield, and not the total sediment yield for these (HUC8) basins, and thus should be viewed as a change in fire-related sedimentation. For each watershed, the relative percent change in post-fire sediment yield was estimated from the first to last decade of the analysis by the sediment model and the individual or combined fire/climate scenarios. When sediment yield was zero for the first decade and non-zero for the last decade, the change was assumed to be 100%. When the inverse was true, the change was assumed to be -100%. When sediment yield was zero for the first and last decade, the change was assumed to be 0%. In addition, for each watershed, the absolute change in post-fire sediment yield was estimated from the first to last decade of the analysis by the sediment model and the individual or combined fire/climate scenarios.

• National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers
• Northwest CASC
• USGS Data Release Products
• USGS Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC)

Data source

Input directly