SOIL AND WATER LOSSES AFTER FOREST FIRE IN SPAIN

During the second half of the XX century, the Spanish territory suffered a fast lost of population in the rural areas. Then, the abandoned land was recovered by dense a vegetation cover which favored an increase of forest fire after the 70’s.

The Universal Soil Loss Equation estimated water erosion rates after forest fire as extremely high in most of the territory. Moreover, it was found an increase of the estimates soil erosion rates from the northwest to the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula due to the decrease of the mean annual precipitation from >1000 mm to < 300 mm. During the 80’s and 90’s the research done by means of plots at slope scales demonstrated that soil erosion was high after forest fires, but that after few years (2-10) the erosion rates were reduced to values similar to the pre-fire conditions.

This paper presents the results of the main research done in Spain during the last 30 years related to the effect of forest fire on soil and water losses. Measurements done at watershed and slope scales with different plot sizes are presented.