SI Fire and Hydrology 2022 : Advances in the Assessment of Fire Impacts on Hydrology

Dear Colleagues,

Fire activity, either natural or human-caused, continues to increase around the globe and has a negative effect on the capacity of ecosystems to benefit humans. Although forest fires are an integral part of some forest ecosystems (especially Mediterranean) the enhanced frequency of catastrophic wildfires tends to increase runoff volume, flow velocity, and erosivity. Thus, an increased frequency of forest fires leads to a need to understand the subsequent post-fire hydrological risks and the runoff, erosion and depositional responses of burned watersheds.

Wildfires can change the landscape immediately, extensively, and with long-term effects. One of the most significant effects of the wildfires is the removal of protective vegetation, which can radically change the hydrologic response of burned watersheds. Hydrological response can be also indirectly affected by the disturbances of the soil properties of the area. The destruction of the top soil organic matter, which leads to the destabilization of the soil structure and the increased ground coverage from ash may exacerbate the impacts of water repellency. Additionally, their potential to disrupt a broad range of ecohydrological processes and functions, such as interception, infiltration, evapotranspiration, and storage can result in increase of overland flow, rapid runoff responses, elevated erosion and high loads of sediment and debris delivery to streams, and greater potential for mass movements and landslides.

Higher runoff rates from severely burned landscapes can lead to flooding and increased risk to human life and property. Increased soil erosion over natural levels following wildfire can lead to loss of soil productivity and a decline in rangeland health. These impacts may also lead to deteriorated physical and chemical water quality, with potentially substantial and long-lasting effects on freshwater, such as the provision of community drinking water supply or recreational water uses.

Introduction of new effective policies that are able to reduce post-fire effects and fire risk and/or its impacts, requires a good understanding of how fire affects the structure and functioning of watersheds.

Numerous methods, techniques and software tools, varying in conceptualization and complexity, are available for modeling hydrological processes. In general, these models account for the pertinent aspects of the landscape, including land cover, soils, and geomorphology. However, the implementation of any solution necessitates a thorough collection of post-fire data (e.g., biomass, burn severity, species regeneration, vegetation-type succession, hydrometeorological conditions, soil properties) in order to detect and specify environmental changes, hydrological alterations and trends. Therefore, remotely sensed data and Geographical Information System analysis are thoroughly used for fire management programs and post-fire impact assessment in hydrological processes.

This Special Issue aims to review and synthesize all the contributions and the newest progress of methodologies and models, assisted by the innovative tools of remote sensing and GIS, in post-fire effects on surface hydrology, in addition to intents to describe the fire regime and the nature and duration of post-fire effects on a range of hydrologic features and to propose a research schedule that can address key knowledge gaps in post-fire hydrology.

Topics

The prospective authors are encouraged to submit articles broadening the current understanding of post-fire hydrology including, but not limited to, the following topics:

Hydrologic Analyses of Post-wildfire conditions;
Hydrological modelling of burned watersheds ;
Remote Sensing and GIS applications in post-fire effects;
UAV and LiDAR in post-fire impact on hydrological processes;
The role of fire in ecosystems functioning and watershed’s hydrological conditions;
Wildfire Impacts on watershed hydrology ;
Assessment of post-fire soil and vegetation conditions;
Assessment of post-fire soil hydraulic properties;
Pre- and post-fire flood and landslide frequency and risk;
Erosion processes and sedimentation estimation.

Dr. Emmanouil Psomiadis
Dr. Konstantinos X. Soulis
Dr. Michalis Diakakis
Guest Editors