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Type: Journal Article
Author(s): Jessica T. Heath; Chris J. Chafer; Floris F. Van Ogtrop; Thomas F.A. Bishop
Publication Date: November 2014

Wildfire is a recurring event which has been acknowledged by the literature to impact the hydrological cycle of a catchment. Hence, wildfire may have a significant impact on water yield levels within a catchment. In Australia, studies of the effect of fire on water yield have been limited to obligate seeder vegetation communities. These communities regenerate from seed banks in the ground or within woody fruits and are generally activated by fire. In contrast, the Sydney Basin is dominated by obligate resprouter communities. These communities regenerate from fire resistant buds found on the plant and are generally found in regions where wildfire is a regular occurrence. The 2001/2002 wildfires in the Sydney Basin provided an opportunity to investigate the impacts of wildfire on water yield in a number of catchments dominated by obligate resprouting communities. The overall aim of this study was to investigate whether there was a difference in water yield post-wildfire. Four burnt subcatchments and 3 control subcatchments were assessed. A general additive model was calibrated using pre-wildfire data and then used to predict post-wildfire water yield using post-wildfire data. The model errors were analysed and it was found that the errors for all subcatchments showed similar trends for the post-wildfire period. This finding demonstrates that wildfires within the Sydney Basin have no significant medium-term impact on water yield. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Citation: Heath, J. T., C. J. Chafer, F. F. Van Ogtrop, and T. F. A. Bishop. 2014. Post-wildfire recovery of water yield in the Sydney Basin water supply catchments: an assessment of the 2001/2002 wildfires. Journal of Hydrology, v. 519, p. 1428-1440. 10.1016/j.hydrol.2014.09.033.

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Regions:
Keywords:
  • Australia
  • droughts
  • ENSO
  • fire frequency
  • fire management
  • Generalised Additive Model
  • hydrology
  • hydrology
  • New South Wales
  • post fire recovery
  • rainforests
  • resprouter
  • resprouting
  • sclerophyll forests
  • water
  • water yield
  • watershed management
  • wildfire
  • wildfires
Tall Timbers Record Number: 31131Location Status: Not in fileCall Number: AvailableAbstract Status: Fair use, Okay, Reproduced by permission
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 53665

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.