Changes in sediment loads and discharge from small mountain catchments following wildfire in south eastern Australia

Abstract

A severe wildfire burnt over 1 million ha of forested land in southeastern Australia in early 2003. Included in the burnt area were two 136 and 244 ha hydrologic research catchments in the East Kiewa valley that had been decommissioned following a 10 year study, and an adjacent larger (10,050 ha) gauged catchment, the West Kiewa River. The three catchments were re-instrumented to measure discharge and suspended sediment fluxes at 15 min timesteps, with additional measurement of bedload at the East Kiewa sites. Analysis of annual rainfall-discharge relationships and of flow duration curves for the first 2 post-fire water years indicated annual flow increases of around 65-75% for Slippery Rock..