PUBLICATIONS

Research Highlights

How much does it cost to mitigate soil erosion after wildfires? 

Girona-García, A.; Cretella, C.; Fernández, C.; Robichaud, P.R.; Vieira, D.; Keizer, J.J. 

Journal of Environmental Management 2023. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117478

In this work, we assess the effectiveness of post-fire soil erosion mitigation treatments at reducing erosion rates over the first post-fire year and provide their application costs. This allowed calculating the treatments’ cost-effectiveness (CE), expressed as the cost per Mg of soil prevented from being lost. This assessment involved a total of 63 field study cases, extracted from 26 publications from the USA, Spain, Portugal, and Canada, and focused on the role of treatment types and materials, and countries.

The results confirmed that post-fire soil erosion mitigation treatments are cost-effective as long as they are applied in areas where the post-fire erosion rates exceed the tolerable erosion rate thresholds and are less costly than the loss of on- and off-site values that they are targeted to protect. 

Therefore, the proper assessment of post-fire soil erosion risk is vital to ensure that the available financial, human and material resources are applied appropriately.

Effectiveness of post-fire soil erosion mitigation treatments: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Girona-García, A.; Vieira, D.C.S.; Silva, J.; Fernández, C.; Robichaud, P.R.; Keizer, J.J., 2021. 

Earth-Science Reviews 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103611.

Soil erosion mitigation treatments have been widely applied after wildfires but assessment of their effectiveness has been limited to local and regional-scale studies, whose conclusions may depend heavily on site-specific conditions. 

To overcome this limitation, we meta-analyzed investigations of post-wildfire soil erosion mitigation treatments, analyzing and critically reviewing the effectiveness of the different existing post-fire mitigation treatments, as well as their different materials and application rates. Relevant key-variables in the erosive response after wildfires were also studied in relation to the treatments' effectiveness such as the post-fire year,  the degree of burn severity, the rainfall amount and erosivity, and the provision and/or evolution of ground cover.

This study shows that further efforts need to be made in testing, from field and modeling studies, combinations of existing and/or emerging erosion mitigation treatments to ensure that the most adequate measures are applied after fires.

What is wrong with post-fire soil erosion modelling? A meta-analysis on current approaches, research gaps, and future directions

Lopes, A.R.; Girona-García, A.; Corticeiro, S.; Martins, R.; Keizer, J.; Vieira, D.C.S.

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 2021. DOI: 10.1002/esp.5020

In the near future, a higher occurrence of wildfires is expected due to climate change, carrying social, environmental, and economic implications. Such impacts are often associated with an increase of post‐fire hydrological and erosive responses, which are difficult to predict. Soil erosion models have been proven to be a valuable tool in the decision‐making process, from emergency response to long‐term planning, however, they were not designed for post‐fire conditions, so need to be adapted to include fire‐induced changes.

In this study, we review the advances in the last 20 years in post-fire soil erosion modelling research and evaluate model adaptations to burned areas, paying special attention to how key-variables in the post-fire hydrological and erosive response were addressed in their predictions: a) fire-induced changes in soil and ground cover; b) fire-induced changes in infiltration; c) burn severity; and d) post-fire mitigation treatments.

This study also discusses the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches, suggests potential improvements, and identifies directions for future research.

Dynamics of topsoil carbon stocks after prescribed burning for pasture restoration in shrublands of the Central Pyrenees (NE-Spain)

Girona-García, A.; Ortiz-Perpiñá, O.; Badía-Villas, D. 

Journal of Environmental Management 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.12.057

Prescribed burning is used in the Central Pyrenees (NE-Spain) as means to stop shrub encroachment processes and recover pasturelands. 

The immediate effects of burning on topsoil carbon stocks and related biological properties and their seasonal evolution in the mid-term were assessed in three autumnal prescribed fires conducted under different environmental conditions (e.g. wind speed and topography), and using different ignition techniques, which allowed comparing the effects of this practice in different scenarios. 

The degree of soil burn severity was highly dependant on the environmental conditions during the burning and the ignition technique used: slow prescribed burning severely affected topsoil properties, while soil remained unaffected at sites where the fire spread rapidly.

In the mid-term, the reduction in soil biological activity after fires and the incorporation of ashes and charred plant remains led to an increase in the soil organic carbon of the burned soils.

Full publication record

2023

2022

2021

2020


2019

2018

2017

2016