@article {bnh-4219,
	title = {Evaluation of daily soil moisture deficit used in Australian forest fire danger rating system},
	number = {349},
	year = {2017},
	month = {11/2017},
	institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC},
	address = {Melbourne},
	abstract = {<p>The fuel availability estimates in McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index used in Australia for issuing\&nbsp;operational fire warnings are partly based on soil moisture deficit, calculated as either the Keetch{\textendash}Byram Drought Index (KBDI) or Mount{\textquoteright}s Soil Dryness Index (SDI). These indices are essentially\&nbsp;simple water balance models designed to estimate soil moisture depletion in the upper soil levels. In\&nbsp;the present study, daily values of the above two indices are calculated over Australia at 0.05\&nbsp;resolution from 1974 onwards. A detailed verification of these two models against in-situ soil moisture\&nbsp;measurements from CosmOz, OzNet and OzFlux networks are performed. The validations are done\&nbsp;using soil moisture observations that represent both surface and deeper soil moisture. The verifications\&nbsp;for deeper soil are restricted to OzNet and OzFlux, as only these two networks provide corresponding to\&nbsp;observations. The verification results show that both KBDI and SDI have relatively low skill in\&nbsp;estimating shallow layer (0 {\textendash} approx. 30 cm) soil moisture compared to a much deeper soil profile (0 {\textendash} approx. 1m). The modest sensitivity of both KBDI and SDI to weather changes indicate that they are\&nbsp;not an accurate measure for estimating duff layer soil moisture.</p>},
	issn = {349},
	author = {Vinod Kumar and Imtiaz Dharssi}
}
