HR: 0800h
AN: H41C-0419    [Abstracts]
TI: Potential Effects of Wildfire on Watershed Hydrologic Response: Sabino Creek Basin, Arizona.
AU: * Guardiola-Claramonte, M
EM: maite@hwr.arizona.edu
AF: Department of Hydrology and Water Resources. The University of Arizona, Harshbarger Bldg. P.O. 210011 , Tucson, AZ 85721 United States
AU: Nijssen, B
EM: nijssen@u.arizona.edu
AF: Department of Hydrology and Water Resources. The University of Arizona, Harshbarger Bldg. P.O. 210011 , Tucson, AZ 85721 United States
AU: Nijssen, B
EM: nijssen@u.arizona.edu
AF: Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. The University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210072, CE Bldg, Room 206, Tucson, AZ 85721 United States
AB: As a result of the drought and decades of fire suppression, wildfires are occurring with greater frequency and intensity in the southwest. Distributed hydrological models can identify rehabilitation zones in a watershed to minimize fire consequences such as increased flow peaks. In this study, a distributed watershed model was used to evaluate the effects of fire on watershed hydrologic response in the Sabino Creek watershed north of Tucson, Arizona. During the summer of 2003, the Aspen fire burned a large part of the study basin. The effects of different degrees of vegetation loss and an increase of hydrophobicity in the soil surface of the watershed were studied through a series of model scenarios. Different spatial responses resulting from the scenarios will be presented, along with a comparative study of differences in stream flow changes.
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE
DE: 1800 HYDROLOGY
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005