Using SWAT to Simulate the Effects of Forest Fires on Water Yield in Forested Watershed: A Case Study of Bonaparte Watershed, Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada

Climate change has impacted the forested watersheds of British Columbia by bringing extremely high temperatures and beetle infestations, thus coinciding with increasing amounts of forest fires. On average, it is estimated that about 10,000 fires occur every year in Canada, burning about 2 million ha of the 400 million ha forested landscape. One of the areas that was most affected by the forest fires in 2017 was the Cariboo Regional District in the central interior of British Columbia. Wildfire burns away the ground cover of the landscape, exposing soils to erosion under heavy storms. The major objective of this study was to simulate the changes in water yield in the forested watershed during pre- and post-wildfire periods, using Bonaparte watershed as the study area. The SWAT model was used for water yield simulations, in order to evaluate the hydrological response of the watersheds to forest fires.