Burned Area Emergency Response Tools

Rule of Thumb by Kuyumjian

The Rule of Thumb by Greg Kuyumjian has been used by Region 3 BAER team members, which is about 7% of BAER interviewees (Foltz and others 2008).

Experienced BAER team members often use their own rule of thumb, which they developed based on their experience and post-fire monitoring observation and what works well within certain regions. An experiened BAER hydrologist (pers. comm. Kuyumjian 2007) suggested using the following rule of thumb, which requires a minimal amount of input information.

You will need to know the following: Rule of Thumb by Kuyumjian.

Input Requirement

To use the Rule of Thumb by Kuyumjian, the following information is required:

• area of high and moderate soil burn severity; and
• anticipated precipitation amount from a damaging storm.

Steps

1. Determine the design/damaging storm, including storm intensity, duration, and recurrence interval.
2. Estimate the post-fire peak flow (Q_p) using the Rule of Thumb by Kuyumjian.

Advantages

The following were advantages to applying the Rule of Thumb by Kuyumjian for post-fire runoff and erosion estimation. The Rule of Thumb by Kuyumjian:

• is applicable for estimating post-fire peak flow;
• is a simple and quick approximation;
• does not need to determine parameter values; and
• considers bulking factor for post-fire debris flow/torrent.

Disadvantages

The folliwng were disadvantages to applying the Rule of Thumb by Kuyumjian for post-fire runoff and erosion estimation. the Rule of Thumb by Kuyumjian:

• does not estimate erosion;
• is only applicable for short-duration (1 hour or less) high intensity (greater than 0.5 inches) storms;
• is not applicable for estimating peak flow from snowmelt or rain-on-snow or frozen ground;
• is currently evaluated only for Region 3; and
• uses only English units.

Example Results

Rendija Canyon after the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire, New Mexico

REFERENCES

Foltz, Randy B.; Robichaud, Peter R.; Rhee, Hakjun. 2008. A synthesis of post-fire road treatments for BAER teams: methods, treatment effectiveness, and decision-making tools for rehabilitation. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station (in preparation).

USDA Forest Service - RMRS - Moscow Forestry Sciences Laboratory
Last Modified: