Erosfire II-The Erosfire Project

Erosfire II

Written by Diana Vieira

Tuesday, 30 December 2008 22:07

Background

The EROSFIRE-II project (PTDC/AGR-CFL/70968/2006), funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, is intended as a continuation as well as an extension of the recently terminated EROSFIRE project (POCI/AGR/60354/2004). Thus, on the one hand, it aims to validate the measurement and modelling results of the EROSFIRE project for other geographical areas, i.e. with different physical-environmental characteristics (e.g. rainfall), distinct land-cover types (especially pine stands), different post-fire land management practices and/or more severe fire intensities. On the other hand, it intends to asses and predict post-fire erosion hazard beyond the scale of individual hill-slopes by also addressing road, channel and catchment-scale processes, including by means of hydrometric stations.

Since the start of the project, in May 2007, however, the selection of a suitable study area has presented major difficulties since the last two summers produced comparatively few and especially also relatively small wildfires in Portugal, particularly when compared with the summers of 2003 and 2005.

Objectives

The project EROSFIRE II (PTD/AGR-CFL/70968/2006) financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) aims to evaluate the EROSFIRE I tool in the sense of its applicability to other geographical areas. The current proposal is, in fact, intended as a direct follow-up of the EROSFIRE project (POCI/AGR/60354/2004) and, as such, has two principal objectives:

ü test, in a comprehensive manner, the decision-support tool that is being developed by the current project for assessing and mapping, in recently burnt areas, soil erosion hazard of individual hill slopes or their sections;

ü overcome the major limitation of the EROSFIRE I tool of considering on-site erosion hazard only and ignoring off-site processes (due to hydrological connectivity between slopes) as well as processes affecting road and channel networks. While the previous project was focused from plot to slope scale, EROSFIRE II will focus on slope to catchment scale.

Project Structure

Task 1- Study area selection and geo-database development,is expected to result, first and foremost, in a comprehensive ArcGIS-application for the study area.

Task 2- Catchment (1-10 km²) and subcatchment-scale (1 ha – 1 km²) erosion measurement,will equip a forest area immediately following a wildfire with 2 hydrometric stations for continuous measurement of streamflow and sediment concentration at two complementary catchments scales and, thereby, allow the gathering of a dataset that will be unique for Portugal and, also, exceptional for the rest of the world.

Task 3- Monitoring of erosion plots and channel network, continuous overland flow measurements from 32-40 erosion plots installed on 6-8 hill slopes and 4 road sections, together with the associated weekly figures of sediment loss, will surely contribute to a much improved knowledge and understanding of the rainfall-runoff and erosion response in recently burnt forest areas.

Task 4- Rainfall simulation experiments, is intended as guarantee for a minimum set of runoff and erosion data, e.g. in the case 2007 and/or 2008 are dry years with few and/or insignificant rainfall and, thus, runoff events, or in the case of frequent disturbances of the field equipment and materials.

Task 5- Laboratory analysis of soil and runoff samples, is expected to provide the soil data that are needed for model parameterization, either directly or through pedotransfer functions, and the sediment concentration data that are needed for model calibration and assessment for the rainfall simulation experiment and the erosion plots.

Task 6- Plot-to-slope-to-catchment-scale erosion modelling, is ultimately expected to result in the selection of at least 1 model that provides reliable and robust estimates of soil erosion hazard and changes therein during the first 2 years following a wildfire.

Task 7- Development of ArcGis-tool for erosion hazard mapping following wildfire, is foreseen to be a software tool, incorporated in a ArcGis-environment, for visualizing and manipulating erosion hazard maps obtained, directly or indirectly, using the erosion model (s) that was/were found to perform most adequately for recently burnt catchments.

Figure 1 - Experimental Erosfire II Setup

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 March 2009 09:32 )

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The Erosfire Project

Background

Objectives

Project Structure

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