Arid Hydrology Research Area (AHRA) rainfall simulator data

Much of the arid and semiarid western United States is affected by flash
flooding associated with infrequent extreme rain events. Floods have large
social and economic consequences for communities and individuals. Thus,
flood hazard assessment is important to reduce flood-related risks and
support sustainable development. Flood prediction relies heavily on
hydrologic models, which are plagued by substantial uncertainties. To
improve model performance, the Southern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood
Control Authority (SSCAFCA) established an outdoor laboratory called the
Arid Hydrology Research Area (AHRA) in 2022. AHRA is situated on a 1.5-ha
parcel of land in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The site is used to conduct
runoff experiments using a rainfall simulator, a device that can reproduce
intense precipitation events often observed during the summer Monsoon.
This dataset contains runoff and infiltration time series for test plots
covering a range of soil textures ranging from sand to silty clay.
Experiments were designed to assess the impact of soil texture, antecedent
moisture conditions, and physical soil crusts on the plot-scale runoff
response.