Modeling Soil Burn Severity Prediction for Planning Measures to Mitigate Post Wildfire Soil Erosion in NW Spain

Fernández-Alonso, José María; Fernández, Cristina; Arellano, Stefano; Vega, José A.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-815226-3.00027-2

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…This explains the difficulty encountered in our research with regard to sediment concentration data in post-fire scenarios. Furthermore, sediment concentration is site-dependent [42,89,[96][97][98]. For these reasons, data relating to pre-fire conditions but referring to green areas in Apulia [78] were used in our combining approach.…”

Section: Erosionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining Methods to Estimate Post-Fire Soil Erosion Using Remote Sensing Data

Argentiero

Ricci

Elia

et al. 2021

Forests

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The increasing number of wildfires in southern Europe is making our ecosystem more vulnerable to water erosion; i.e., the loss of vegetation and subsequent runoff increase cause a shift in large quantities of sediment. Fire severity has been recognized as one of the most important parameters controlling the magnitude of post-fire soil erosion. In this paper, we adopted a combination of methods to easily assess post-fire erosion and prevent potential risk in subsequent rain events. The model presented is structured into three modules that were implemented in a GIS environment. The first module estimates fire severity with the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) method; the second estimates runoff with rainfall depth–duration curves and the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) method; and the third estimates pre- and post-fire soil erosion. In addition, two post-fire scenarios were analyzed to assess the influence of fire severity on soil erosion: the former based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the latter on the Relative differenced Normalized Burn Index (RdNBR). The results obtained in both scenarios are quite similar and demonstrate that transitional areas, such as rangelands and rangelands with bush, are the most vulnerable because they show a significant increase in erosion following a fire event. The study findings are of secondary importance to the combined approach devised because the focal point of the study is to create the basis for a future tool to facilitate decision making in landscape management.

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Section: Erosionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining Methods to Estimate Post-Fire Soil Erosion Using Remote Sensing Data

Argentiero

Ricci

Elia

et al. 2021

Forests

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“…It is well known that the magnitude of the soil changes mainly depends on the fire severity (i.e., the entity of changes in the burned ecosystem) (Certini, 2005; Zavala et al, 2014; Zema, 2021). Fire severity is considered as a key descriptor of the magnitude of the soil changes after fire due to its implications on the hydrological response (Fernández et al, 2020; Fernández & Vega, 2016; Fernández‐Alonso et al, 2019). For low severity fires, soil heating is negligible and the impact on soil properties is low, while the soils burned by high‐severity fires can reach very high temperatures, and the impacts on soil hydrology can be extremely negative, such as strong water repellency and very low infiltration capacity (Pereira et al, 2018; Zema, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variability of hydraulic conductivity and water repellency of soils with fire severity in pine forests and reforested areas under Mediterranean conditions

et al. 2022

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The effects of fire on soil hydraulic conductivity (K) and soil water repellency (SWR) have been mainly studied by field experiments in forest areas burned by wildfires with a given severity, while the variability of K and SWR with the fire severities has been less investigated. To fill this gap, the changes in the K and SWR with fire severity and soil depth (1 and 5 cm below the ground surface) have been evaluated in two forest ecosystems (natural stand of pine and reforested areas) of Central Eastern Spain. A significant influence of the fire severity on the infiltration rates was found, and this influence was different between the natural stand of pine and the reforested areas. Compared to the unburned soils, the highest reduction of the K (80% to 90%) and SWR levels were found for the fires with low and intermediate severities at the soil surface. At the lower soil depth, the reduction of K and the SWR level due to fire were proportional to its severity. Moreover, the K of the soil surface layer was often higher compared to the water infiltration in the deeper layer. In the reforested areas, also low fire severities can noticeably reduce the surface K, despite the limited SWR, while the natural forests are less exposed to hydrophobicity in their surface soil layer. This study indicates the need to reduce the risk of flooding and erosion linked to a reduction in water infiltration and increase of soil repellency.

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“…It is well known that the magnitude of soil changes depends strongly on fire severity (Certini, 2005;Zavala et al, 2014;Zema, 2021). The latter is considered as a key descriptor of soil changes after fire, due to its implications on the hydrological response (Fernández et al, 2020;Fernández and Vega, 2016;Fernández-Alonso et al, 2019). The analysis of soil chemistry after burning in natural and reforested areas has also been insufficient, and this leaves open issues about soil degradation in areas where fire impacts sum up to the disturbance caused by planting and machinery operations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variability of soil properties with fire severity in pine forests and reforested areas under Mediterranean conditions

Lucas‐Borja

Fernández

Plaza‐Álvarez

et al. 2022

Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics

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It is well known how fires affect the properties of forest soils depending on its severity. A better understanding of the magnitude of these impacts is essential to setup effective management actions after fire against the losses of soil and biodiversity. However, physical, chemical and biological processes in burnt soils are complex, resulting in a diversity of fire-induced changes, as acknowledged in many literature studies. Moreover, these changes may be even variable between natural forests and reforested areas. This study explores the changes in the most important soil properties with fire severity, from low to high. The main chemical parameters of soils were measured after field sampling in different pine forests (burnt natural stands, reforested areas as well as unburnt sites) of Castilla La Mancha (Central Eastern Spain). In comparison to the unburnt soils, the investigation has shown in the burnt areas: (i) no evident changes in soil pH at all fire severities, except in natural stands burnt at a very high severity (showing an increase of about 10%); (ii) increases in the organic carbon content (by about 70%) of soils burnt at a moderate fire severity under both forest ecosystems, and in reforested areas at very high fire severities (+95%); (iii) small differences in the nitrogen content of soil, except for a significant increase measured in soils burnt at an moderate fire severity under both the natural pine stand and reforested area (about +300%); (iv) a limited variability of the phosphorous content in the soil, with only an increase in soils under natural pine stands burnt at moderate fire severity (by 250%); (v) increases in magnesium and potassium contents in soils burnt at the highest fire severities for both land conditions, and decreases in calcium content in reforested areas burnt at the highest severity. Due to some negative impacts (increase in pH and decrease in organic carbon), the implementation of post-fire management actions at natural pine stands burnt at the highest fire severity should be a priority over reforested areas. Overall, this study did not show a straightforward pattern between soil properties, fire severity and land condition. This means that other parameters (for instance, the hydrological properties of soils) that were not explored in this investigation could have played an important role, and therefore must be taken into consideration when defining post-fire management actions.

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Modeling Soil Burn Severity Prediction for Planning Measures to Mitigate Post Wildfire Soil Erosion in NW Spain

Cited by 5 publications

References 55 publications

Combining Methods to Estimate Post-Fire Soil Erosion Using Remote Sensing Data

Combining Methods to Estimate Post-Fire Soil Erosion Using Remote Sensing Data

Variability of hydraulic conductivity and water repellency of soils with fire severity in pine forests and reforested areas under Mediterranean conditions

Variability of soil properties with fire severity in pine forests and reforested areas under Mediterranean conditions

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