Research Database
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Relations between soil hydraulic properties and burn severity
Year: 2015
Wildfire can affect soil hydraulic properties, often resulting in reduced infiltration. The magnitude of change in infiltration varies depending on the burn severity. Quantitative approaches to link burn severity with changes in infiltration are lacking. This study uses controlled laboratory measurements to determine relations between a remotely sensed burn severity metric (dNBR, change in normalised burn ratio) and soil hydraulic properties (SHPs). SHPs were measured on soil cores collected from an area burned by the 2013 Black Forest fire in Colorado, USA. Six sites with the same soil type…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Western Water Threatened by Wildfire: It's Not Just A Public Lands Issue
Year: 2015
Water is the arid West’s most precious and most vulnerable resource. Western water allows metropolises to bloom in the desert, it fuels America’s largest agricultural economy and it supports a ski industry worth more than $6 billion to state and local economies (Burakowski and Magnusson, 2012). The delivery of clean and abundant water is extremely sensitive to disaster, whether natural or man-made. As years-long drought conditions across the region reinforce, the water quantity and quality in the West is never certain.
Publication Type: Report
Categorizing the social context of the wildland urban interface: Adaptive capacity for wildfire and community "archetypes"
Year: 2015
Understanding the local context that shapes collective response to wildfire risk continues to be a challenge for scientists and policymakers. This study utilizes and expands on a conceptual approach for understanding adaptive capacity to wildfire in a comparison of 18 past case studies. The intent is to determine whether comparison of local social context and community characteristics across cases can identify community "archetypes" that approach wildfire planning and mitigation in consistently different ways. Identification of community archetypes serves as a potential strategy for…
Publication Type: Journal Article