| Project Outline |
 |
 |
 |
| Tuesday, 20 May 2008 16:11 | |
BackgroundThe idea for the EROSFIRE proposal arose as a response to the “Soil losses after the forest fires of the summer of 2003”-map that was produced for Portugal following the particularly extensive wildfires of that year. This map is based on some modified version of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). However understandable this choice of model may have been for pragmatic reasons, it does raise serious questions about the real-world applicability of the major advances that quantitative soil erosion prediction has seen over the last decades. The EROSFIRE proposal takes up the challenge, so to say, of developing a model-based tool for erosion hazard assessment in Portugal following forest wildfires with a more up-to-date scientific basis than USLE.Main aimThe main aim is to develop a software tool, integrated in a GIS-environment, that allows to assess and map, at the scale of individual hillslopes, soil erosion hazard in recently burned forest areas for different scenarios of post-fire land management, including “no-intervention” and considering diverse erosion mitigation and control measures.ApproachIn the EROSFIRE project, rainfall simulation experiments (rse’s) are envisaged as a comparatively time-and cost-effective approach to gather substantial amounts of soil erosion data under rapidly changing circumstances and, thereby, as a possible way-around the data constraints commonly encountered in model parameterisation, calibration and assessment. Additional monitoring of small-scale and slope-scale plots is intended to ensure that the rse’s are sufficiently representative of real-world situations. The rse data are thought to provide a sufficient basis for erosion modelling at the small-plot scale and, through upscaling, for predicting erosion rates at the slope scale. Various existing erosion models will be compared, and the best model(s) - eventually adapted to the Portuguese situation - are intended to allow erosion hazard assessment at the scale of individual hill slopes for different post-fire management scenarios.TasksWp1 - Rainfall simulationa. development of rainfall simulator b. rainfall simulation experiments at year-1 sites and year-2 sites Wp2 - Study site selection and surveying a. selection of temporary and permanent study sites b. surveying of “baseline” and “validation” monitoring sites Wp3 - Instrumentation and monitoring of permanent study sites a. 2 “baseline” sites (selected in first project year) b. 2 “validation” sites (selected in second project year) Wp4 - Laboratory analysis of soil and runoff samples Wp5 - Multi-scale soil erosion modeling a. model screening and selection b. model parametrization and calibration c. model assessment d. model adaptation and development Wp6 - Erosion hazard assessment after wildfires as well as intervention scenarios a. scenario development for erosion mitigation and control b. development of software tool for erosion hazard mapping at the slope-scale |
|
| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 March 2009 08:25 ) |
Discuss this item on the forums. (0 posts)