Arid Hydrology Research Area (AHRA) rainfall simulator data

<p>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. </p>