Wildland fire impacts on water supply (FIWAS) data for the contiguous United States

We obtained data about 168 locations across the contiguous United States (CONUS) that were affected by wildland fire during the period 1984 - 2013. Wildland fire locations, dates, extent, and burn severity were obtained from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) dataset. We obtained watershed attributes (watershed boundaries, drainage areas, and perimeters) and daily time series of river flow from the GAGES-II dataset (Geospatial Attributes of Gages for Evaluating Streamflow, version II). The boundaries of the water resource regions were acquired from the Watershed Boundary Database. Climate data were extracted from the daily high resolution (1×1 kilometer) Daymet v3 dataset, and obtained the gridded PRISM (Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model) dataset. For topographic data (elevation, slope, and aspect), we used the highest resolution version (244×244 meter) of the Global Multi-resolution Terrain Elevation Data 2010, principally obtained during the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Finally, we obtained land cover data from the 2001 National Land Cover Database (NLCD).
Wildland fire impacts on surface freshwater resources have not previously been measured, nor factored into regional water management strategies. However, large wildland fires are increasing and raise concerns about fire impacts on potable water. Therefore, we collected data from across the contiguous United States as part of an assessment of these impacts in the 5 years following wildland fire in affected locations, and their management implications.