Gregory K. Gould, Mingliang Liu, Michael E. Barber, Keith A. Cherkauer, Peter R. Robichaud, and Jennifer C. Adam

Journal of Hydrology

Published date May 1, 2016

The effects of climate change and extreme wildfire events on runoff erosion over a mountain watershed

  • Models the effects of climate change and extreme wildfire activity on erosion in the intermountain West if the United States
  • Nests a hillslope-scale erosion model into a macroscale hydrologic model
  • Finds that wildfire exacerbates the impacts of climate change on the hydrograph shape
  • States that climate change may exacerbate the impacts of extreme wildfires on sediment yield
  • Concludes by stating, "The combined effects of climate change and a possible continuation of increasing fire frequency and severity will compound excess sediment issues that already exist in this region of the intermountain West."