[Faculty] Fwd: [CSRC.COLLOQUIUM] "Ecohydrologic Recovery and Runoff Prediction After Fire in Southern California"

[Jose Castillo]

[image: SDSU_CSRC Logo.jpg]



DATE:
*Friday, October 23, 2020*



TITLE:

*Ecohydrologic Recovery and Runoff Prediction After Fire in Southern
California*


TIME:
*3:30-4:30PM*




LOCATION:
Join Zoom Meeting -  *https://SDSU.zoom.us/j/91071174391*
<https://sdsu.zoom.us/j/91071174391>



SPEAKER/BIO:

*Dr. Alicia M. Kinoshita, Civil Engineering, San Diego State University *






ABSTRACT:


Following wildfires, the probability of flooding and debris flows increase,
posing risks to human lives, downstream communities, infrastructure, and
ecosystems. In southern California (USA), the Rowe, Countryman, and Storey
(RCS) 1949 methodology is an empirical method that is used to rapidly
estimate post-fire peak streamflows. The accuracy of RCS for 33 watersheds
under current conditions is re-evaluated. Pre-fire peak streamflows yielded
a bias of 0.162 cms/km2 and -0.792 cms/km2 for the 2- and 10-year
recurrence interval events, respectively. Post-fire, RCS underpredicted
peak streamflows for 2-, 5-, and 10-year events for most watersheds. It was
demonstrated that RCS overgeneralizes watershed processes and does not
adequately represent the spatial and temporal variability in systems
affected by wildfire and extreme weather events. Machine learning was used
to identify critical watershed characteristics to develop a multi-variable
model. Numerous parameters including local physiography, land cover,
geology, slope, aspect, rainfall intensity, and soil burn severity were
incorporated into a random forest algorithm. Important parameters were
identified, which guided an analytical solution for calculating post-fire
peak streamflows in small catchments in southern California during the
first year after fire (R2= 0.82). A case study of the 2018 Holy Fire will
highlight the influence of climate and watershed characteristics on
post-fire processes. Specifically, Landsat 8 enhanced vegetation index
(EVI) and ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space
Station (ECOSTRESS) evapotranspiration (ET) and evaporative stress index
(ESI) were used to represent vegetation conditions pre- and post-fire and
analyzed for the entire burned area. Results demonstrate a suite of
satellite-based vegetation indices that can be used by planners to improve
the assessment of hydrologic recovery and predict runoff potential
following wildfire.




Host: Jose Castillo

Note: Videos of previous colloquium talks can be seen on the CSRC website
in the colloquium archive section or on the CSRC YouTube page here
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN0ZEztlmyDqG2pm-Rle_Eg/feed>.




-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"CSRC Colloquium" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
email to csrc.colloquium+unsubscribe at sdsu.edu.
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/a/sdsu.edu/d/msgid/csrc.colloquium/b0b93b55-4a84-410c-99d9-172ed1677f14o%40sdsu.edu
<https://groups.google.com/a/sdsu.edu/d/msgid/csrc.colloquium/b0b93b55-4a84-410c-99d9-172ed1677f14o%40sdsu.edu?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://engineering.sdsu.edu/pipermail/faculty/attachments/20201022/779b1dda/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: SDSU_CSRC Logo.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 17493 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://engineering.sdsu.edu/pipermail/faculty/attachments/20201022/779b1dda/attachment-0002.jpg>