Soil Erosion Potential after Fire and Rehabilitation Treatments in Greece |
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Authors: | Dimitrios I Myronidis Dimitrios A Emmanouloudis Ioannis A Mitsopoulos Evangelos E Riggos |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management, Technological Education Institute of Kavala, 1st Km—Dramas Microhoriou, Drama, 66100, Greece;(2) School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece |
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Abstract: | Wildland fires are one of the more severe disturbances for natural ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin and can become a
critical factor in the process of soil erosion. A quantitative assessment of soil erosion is needed in order to form an assessment
on the extent and magnitude of post-fire soil erosion potential and to assess the effectiveness of the rehabilitation treatment.
On 21 August 2006, a large wildland fire occurred in the Kassandra Peninsula in northern Greece, which burned one fifth of
the Peninsula. After the fire, in order to protect the soil against erosion, the Forest Services applied a hillslope rehabilitation
treatment of contour-felled logs and branch piles. In this paper, we report quantitative estimation of the wildland fire and
erosion control treatment on soil erosion potential. The coupling of the Universal Soil Loss Equation and the Geographical
Information Systems was implemented and the erosion potential was found to be 2.8 t/ha/year pre-fire, 29.5 t/ha/year post-fire,
and 21.3 t/ha/year after rehabilitation treatment. The model can successfully contribute in the planning of the rehabilitation
treatment but it cannot be used in the quantification of the soil loss after the application of the erosion control measures.
The comparisons between the results of the three cases indicate the importance of the immediate erosion control measures in
order to mitigate soil loss and restore the natural environment. |
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