Assessment of Fire Effects on Surface Runoff Erosion Susceptibility: The Case of the Summer 2021 Forest Fires in Greece

Niki Evelpidou, Maria Tzouxanioti, Theodore Gavalas, Evangelos Spyrou, Giannis Saitis, Alexandros Petropoulos and Anna Karkani
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Niki Evelpidou: Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15774 Athens, Greece
Maria Tzouxanioti: Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15774 Athens, Greece
Theodore Gavalas: Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15774 Athens, Greece
Evangelos Spyrou: Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15774 Athens, Greece
Giannis Saitis: Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15774 Athens, Greece
Alexandros Petropoulos: Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15774 Athens, Greece
Anna Karkani: Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15774 Athens, Greece

Land, 2021, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: The wildfires of summer 2021 in Greece were among the most severe forest fire events that have occurred in the country over the past decade. The conflagration period lasted for 20 days (i.e., from 27 July to 16 August 2021) and resulted in the devastation of an area of more than 3600 Km 2 . Forest fire events of similar severity also struck other Mediterranean countries during this period. Apart from their direct impacts, forest fires also render an area more susceptible to runoff erosion by massively removing its vegetation, among other factors. It is clear that immediately after a forest fire, most areas are much more susceptible to erosion. In this paper, we evaluate the erosion hazard of Attica, Northern Euboea, and the Peloponnese that were devastated by forest fires during the summer of 2021 in Greece, in comparison with their geological and geomorphological structures, as well as land cover and management. Given that a very significant part of these areas were burnt during the major conflagrations of this summer, erosion risk, as well as flood risk, are expected to be very high, especially for the coming autumn and winter. For the evaluation of erosion risk, the burnt areas were mapped, and the final erosion-risk maps were constructed through GIS software. The final maps suggest that most of the burnt areas are highly susceptible to future surface runoff erosion events.

Keywords: surface runoff erosion; forest fire; vegetation; runoff; vulnerability; hazard (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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