Remote Sensing Calculation of the Influence of Wildfire on Erosion in High Mountain Areas

Abstract

Soil erosion is one of the most important environmental problems of the moment, especially in areas affected by wildfires. In this paper, we study pre-fire and post-fire erosion using remote sensing techniques with Sentinel-2 satellite images and LiDAR. The Normalized Burn Ratio is used to determine the areas affected by the fire that occurred on 18 August 2016 in the Natural Reserve of Garganta de los Infiernos (Cáceres). To calculate the erosion, the multi-criteria analysis is carried out from the RUSLE. Once all calculations were performed, there was a considerable increase in sediment production from 16 June 2016 (pre-fire) with an erosion of 31 T/ha·year to 16 June 2017 of 74 T/ha·year for areas of moderate fire severity, and an increase from 11 T/ha·year in 2016 to 70 T/ha·year for areas with a very high severity. From the NDVI, it was possible to verify that this also affected the recovery of post-fire vegetation, decreasing the NDVI index 0.36 in areas of moderate severity and 0.53 in areas of very high severity.

Estimation of potential soil erosion reduction using GIS-based RUSLE under different land cover management models: A case study of Pale Municipality, B&H

“…Similar studies have also been conducted in surrounding countries (Diodato, 2006;Mikoš et al, 2010;Simic Belnovic et al, 2013;Valjarević et al, 2014;Blinkov, 2015;Zdruli et al, 2016;Traykova-Pavlova et al, 2017;Bon Gregorič et al, 2018;Micić Ponjiger et al, 2021;Milentijević et al, 2021;Pandey et al, 2021). The RUSLE method in combination with GIS has been used in numerous modern works and research studies (Kouli et al, 2008;Prasannakumar et al, 2012;Tošić et al, 2013;Blackey et al, 2015;Efthimiou, 2016;Nasir and Selvakumar, 2018;Lanorte et al, 2019;Nolė et al, 2020;Polykretis et al, 2020;Milentijević et al, 2021;Sánchez Sánchez et al, 2021), which led to very satisfactory results.…”

Applicability Comparison of GIS-Based RUSLE and SEMMA for Risk Assessment of Soil Erosion in Wildfire Watersheds

“…The most frequently used model for assessing soil erosion risk in large-scale wildfire areas is the GIS-based RUSLE, which has been developed in conjunction with remote sensing technologies [18][19][20]. Among the vegetation indices extracted from satellite images, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), computed from the red and near-infrared bands, is a highly utilized indicator and can reflect the recovery of post-fire vegetation.…”

Operational Mapping and Post-Disaster Hazard Assessment by the Development of a Multiparametric Web App Using Geospatial Technologies and Data: Attica Region 2021 Wildfires (Greece)

“…The Mediterranean countries have been damaged over the last couple of years, due to extensive fire incidents causing irreversible damage to the environment [7]. Especially, high mountain regions characterized by Mediterranean climates seem to be more vulnerable to wildfire incidents due to the occurrence of high rainfall intensity in sparse vegetation cover areas [8]. Fire impacts on vegetation, soil, atmosphere, and society are dependent on fire characteristics such as severity and size [9].…”

“…Forest fires constitute one of the most critical causes of soil erosion due to their ability to burn large amounts of vegetation cover leading to an increase in runoff and sediment transfer [19,20]. For this purpose, several indices have been developed so as to assess the damage caused by wildfires on soil properties, such as the dNBR (differential NBR), which [8] is calculated based on pre-and post-fire satellite images [21].…”

“…Research on soil erosion has been extensively carried out over the past few decades since it is inextricably linked to the world's most serious environmental problems [8]. There are a wide variety of models that have been developed throughout the years considering soil loss assessment in several regions around the world [22].…”