PWFDF and ocelote

PWFDF is the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) official collection of post-wildfire debris-flow hazard assessments. These assessments are produced in response to elevated debris-flow hazards following wildfire events, and are intended to assist federal, state, and local agencies in planning for postfire hazards. Since 2025, new assessments have been archived in the PWFDF Collection on the USGS ScienceBase data catalog. Assessments in this collection conform to a strict data specification, which is defined by the Data Specification chapter of this documentation.

The ocelote package is the codebase responsible for producing and managing the PWFDF collection. The codebase is intended for operational USGS personnel and provides routines to (1) implement hazard assessments, and (2) upload assessment results to USGS assets. Other parties may also find the package useful as a reference for the code used to produce PWFDF assessments.

Tip

If you are interested in producing your own hazard assessments, but are not a USGS affiliate, then we recommend using the wildcat package instead of ocelote.

Using this documentation

This documentation includes resources for both USGS personnel and the PWFDF user community. The Ocelote User Guide chapter is intended for operational USGS personnel and provides instructions for installing and running the ocelote package.

The PWFDF Data Spec chapter defines the data specification (data spec) for the PWFDF Collection. The data spec formalizes the organization and contents of assessment products within the collection and is intended to document the collection for the user community.

Finally, you can find links to:

• Citation information,

• Contribution guidelines,

• Legal documents, and

• Release notes

in the navigation sidebar.