From the Proceedings of the 1985 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Association and the Hydrology Section - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science - April 27, 1985, Las Vegas, Nevada / Stormflow and sediment production increased greatly after a wildfire on three small cha3parrlal watersheds in .entral Arizona. Peaks frequently exceeded 5 m³ s⁻¹ km⁻² (450 cfg mi⁻²) when 15-minute rainfall intensity exceeded 50 mm hr⁻¹ (2 in hr⁻¹) on catchments that, before burning, responded little to intense rainfall. Source water for the flashy spates and heavy erosion was surface runoff on the severely burned, unprotected, water -repellent soils. For a few years after the fire, intense summer rains produced a disproportionate amount of the runoff and sediment. Early postfire recovery was rapid; severe flooding and erosion were over in 3 years, and within 5 to 10 years stormflows and peaks declined to near prefire levels. Postfire conversion to grass on one watershed did not appreciably change the rate of recovery.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/296383 |
| Date | 27 April 1985 |
| Creators | Hibbert, Alden R. |
| Contributors | USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forestry Sciences Lab, ASU Campus, Tempe, Arizona 85287 |
| Publisher | Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Proceedings |
| Rights | Copyright ©, where appropriate, is held by the author. |
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