Balance Hydrologics is a leader in providing post-fire services to districts, counties, and landowners needing rapid and robust scientific assistance. In recent years, agency staff have reduced post-fire support to the public or local government, choosing to limit technical support to lands owned by state and federal agencies. Balance staff know how to bridge that gap. We work with fire-protection professionals and volunteers, representatives of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and local engineers or range managers to (a) quickly estimate effects of fires on watersheds, open space and water supplies, and (b) develop designs to stabilize channels, control erosion, (c) protect communities from increased post-fire runoff and sediment accumulation, and (d) best protect water supplies from fire-related contaminants.
Our post-fire-experienced hydrologists, engineers, and soils specialists assist with:
- Projecting and measuring reservoir, lagoon or harbor sedimentation trajectories following a fire;
- Rapid modeling of likely increases in post-fire flood peaks, using advanced software calibrated for fires, and including field measurements of burn intensity and hydrophobicity;
- Estimating post-fire channel sedimentation (quantifying expected depth and duration of habitat loss and increased inundation levels);
- Assessing channel-stability assessments and designing protective or stabilizing bank treatments;
- Protecting key road systems, including emergency vehicle access, from post-fire erosion and debris;
- Developing programs to protect small water systems from post-fire ash influx, erosion, and sedimentation;
- Estimating increases in post-fire summer low flows;
- Quantifying post-fire nutrient, trace-metal and other chemical delivery to impoundments, streams, estuaries and littoral zones; and
- Working with debris-flow and mudflow specialists from agencies and allied firms, assessing channel effects.
