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Post-fire debris-flow hazard model output files, Santa Fe Municipal Watershed

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2024-08-23T00:00:00Z
Wildfires are increasing in size and severity due to warmer drought climate change combined with overstocked forests. Fire increases the likelihood of debris flows, posing significant threats to life, property, and water supplies. Post-fire debris flows are a substantial, increasing hazard in the Santa Fe Municipal Watershed and other similar forested watersheds across the western United States. The Santa Fe Municipal Watershed in northern New Mexico is of vital importance to the water supply for the city of Santa We conducted a debris-flow hazard assessment for the Santa Fe Municipal Watershed (SFMW) in north-central New Mexico. We modeled post-fire debris flow probability and volume in 103 sub-basins for 2-year, 5-year, and Probable Maximum Precipitation rainfalls following modeled low-, moderate-, and high-severity wildfires. Crown fire potential was modeled with FlamMap (Finney, 2006), after Tillery et al. (2014). To satisfy data input requirements of the debris flow model that includes burn severity classes (low, moderate, and high), the modeled crown fire activity was first converted to dNBR (French et al. 2008). This conversion was calibrated based on burn severities from the 2011 Pacheco Fire that burned in a nearby watershed (approximately 5 km north of the SFMW). Data files are numbered 1-5. Spatial files provided in this data release include: 1) polygon of the study area; 2) 103 sub-basins within the study area; 3) Thematic Burn Severity Mosaic for New Mexico in 2011; and 4) complete post-fire debris flow probability and volume data of every rainfall event and wildfire scenario for 103 sub-basins; and tabulated data provided in this data release include: 5) calculated burn severity percentages for Pacheco Canyon Fire.

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