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Vegetation, rainfall simulation, and overland flow experiments before and after tree removal in woodland-encroached sagebrush steppe: the SageSTEP hydrology study

    Simulated rainfall and overland-flow experiments are useful for enhancing understanding of surface hydrologic and erosion processes, quantifying runoff and erosion rates, and developing and testing predictive quantitative models. This extensive dataset consists of rainfall simulation and overland flow experimental plot data coupled with associated measures of vegetation, ground cover, and surface soil properties across point to hillslope scales. Data were collected at three woodland-encroached sagebrush (*Artemisia* spp.) rangelands in the Great Basin, USA, under undisturbed/untreated conditions and 1 yr to 9 yr following fire and/or mechanical tree-removal treatments.

    Small Watershed Hydrology (WinTR-55)

      WinTR-55 is a single-event rainfall-runoff small watershed hydrologic model. The model generates hydrographs from both urban and agricultural areas and at selected points along the stream system. Hydrographs are routed downstream through channels and/or reservoirs. Multiple sub-areas can be modeled within the watershed.

      SITES

        Prioritization of dam rehabilitation, improved flood warning systems, development of emergency action plans, and inform policy makers on zoning regulations.

        SPUR2

          SPUR2 DOS ver. 2.2 is a general grassland ecosystem simulation model designed to determine beef cattle performance and production by simultaneously simulating production of up to 15 plant species on 36 heterogeneous grassland sites. SPUR2 simulates grassland hydrology, nitrogen cycling, and soil organic matter on grazed ecosystems as well as rangeland production under different climatic regimes, environmental conditions, and management alternatives.

          RZWQM2

            Root Zone Water Quality Model 2 (RZWQM2) is a whole-system model for studying crop production and environmental quality under current and changing climate conditions. It emphasizes the effects of agricultural management practices on physical, chemical and biological processes. RZWQM2 is a one-dimensional model with a pseudo 2-dimensional drainage flow. Crop simulation options include the generic plant growth model, DSSAT-CSM 4.0 and HERMES SUCROS models. It also can simulate surface energy balance with components from the SHAW model and water erosion from the GLEAMS model. An automated parameter estimation algorithm (PEST) was added to RZWQM2 for objective model calibration and uncertainty analysis.

            HIRO2

              HIRO2 (Hortonian Infiltration and Run-Off/On) is a spatially distributed rainfall-runoff model for event-based studies of space-time watershed processes. A grid-based routing hierarchy was defined over the watershed using the D-infinity contributing area algorithm. Computation of ponding time was included to handle variable run-on and rainfall intensity. The Green-Ampt model was adopted to calculate surface infiltration, and the kinematic wave model was used to route Hortonian runoff and channel flow. The model can handle input rainfall, soil parameters, surface roughness, and other properties that vary in space and time.

              SWAGMAN-Whatif

                An interactive computer program was developed to simulate the interactions among the above factors. It shows how changing one factor impacts the outcome of the other factors for a single growing season. The user selects a climate, a crop, and soil characteristics from menu lists, and then sets the water table depth and quality, irrigation (river or well) water quality and then develops an irrigation schedule. On execution, the relative yield reductions due to over irrigation, under irrigation, and salinity, water table rise or fall and surface runoff are shown numerically for the growing season. Soil water content, soil salinity, water table depth changes and rain and irrigation events during the season are also shown graphically.

                Cligen

                  Cligen is a stochastic weather generator which produces daily estimates of precipitation, temperature, dewpoint, wind, and solar radiation for a single geographic point, using monthly parameters (means, SD's, skewness, etc.) derived from the historic measurements. Unlike other climate generators, it produces individual storm parameter estimates, including time to peak, peak intensity, and storm duration, which are required to run the WEPP and the WEPS soil erosion models.

                  KINEROS - The kinematic runoff and erosion model

                    The kinematic runoff and erosion model KINEROS is an event oriented, physically based model describing the processes of interception, infiltration, surface runoff and erosion from small agricultural and urban watersheds. The watershed is represented by a cascade of planes and channels; the partial differential equations describing overland flow, channel flow, erosion and sediment transport are solved by finite difference techniques. The spatial variation of rainfall, infiltration, runoff, and erosion parameters can be accomodated. KINEROS may be used to determine the effects of various artificial features such as urban developments, small detention reservoirs, or lined channels on flood hydrographs and sediment yield.