Journal article
Quantifying relations between surface runoff and aridity after wildfire
RE Van der Sant, P Nyman, PJ Noske, C Langhans, PNJ Lane, GJ Sheridan
Earth Surface Processes and Landforms | WILEY | Published : 2018
DOI: 10.1002/esp.4370
Abstract
Post-wildfire runoff and erosion are major concerns in fire-prone landscapes around the world, but these hydro-geomorphic responses have been found to be highly variable and difficult to predict. Some variations have been observed to be associated with landscape aridity, which in turn can influence soil hydraulic properties. However, to date there has been no attempt to systematically evaluate the apparent relations between aridity and post-wildfire runoff. In this study, five sites in a wildfire burnt area were instrumented with rainfall-runoff plots across an aridity index (AI) gradient. Surface runoff and effective rainfall were measured over 10 months to allow investigation of short- (pe..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This work was made possible through funding from the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, Australia, Melbourne Water Corporation and the Victorian Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning Integrated Forest Ecosystem Research program. The authors wish to thank the DEPI and VicForest staff in Erica, and our colleagues Daniel Metzen, Chris Sherwin, Assaf Inbar, and Leila Kasmaei for their support. The authors would also like to thank the reviewers whose feedback and comments helped improve the manuscript.