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Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment Tool (AGWA): Applications for Fire Management and Assessment.
Citation:
Sheppard, B., G. Sidman, D. Guertin, D. Goodrich, I. Burns, D. Falk, D. Thoma, E. Canfield, Y. Korgaonkar, AND W. Kepner. Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment Tool (AGWA): Applications for Fire Management and Assessment. In Proceedings, SEDHYD 2015 Conference, Reno, NV, April 19 - 23, 2015. Urban & Fischer Verlag, 1795-1796, (2015).
Impact/Purpose:
Simulations of pre- and post-fire runoff and erosion allows managers to identify areas and infrastructure that are at risk or need rehabilitation.
Description:
New tools and functionality have been incorporated into the Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment Tool (AGWA) to assess the impacts of wildland fire on runoff and erosion. AGWA (see: www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/agwa or http://www.epa.gov/esd/land-sci/agwa/) is a GIS interface jointly developed by the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the University of Arizona, and the University of Wyoming to automate the parameterization and execution of a suite of hydrologic and erosion models (RHEM, WEPP, KINEROS2, and SWAT). Through an intuitive interface, the user selects an outlet from which AGWA delineates and discretizes the watershed using a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The watershed model elements are then intersected with terrain, soils, and land cover data layers to derive the requisite model input parameters. Based on fire severity maps, AGWA modifies model input parameters to reflect the spatial effect of the fire. Simulations of pre- and post-fire runoff and erosion allows managers to identify areas and infrastructure that are at risk or need rehabilitation. Tools have been developed to assess the effect of post-fire treatments (e.g. hay mulch), evaluate the risk to ponds and reservoirs, and to evaluate the effects of pre-fire fuel treatments (thinning, prescribed fire) on post-fire runoff and erosion.