Assessing post-fire soil erosion and water contamination risk in European fire-affected catchmentswith WEPPcloud-EU WATAR watershed model

Soil and ash are key sources of sediment, carbon, nitrogen, and associated pollutant movement following a wildfire. Their transport into freshwater systems can pose severe environmental and socio-economic implications including impacts to water quality and aquatic ecosystems, disruptions to drinking water supply and high remediation costs, as well as the depletion of carbon and nutrients from areas affected by erosion. We assessed the risk of soil erosion, ash and contaminant transport, and water contamination in three burned European catchments in Central Europe (Germany and the Czech Republic), Portugal and Spain using the European Water Erosion Prediction Project cloud interface with the Wildfire Ash Transport and Risk (WEPPcloud-EU WATAR) watershed model. The watersheds varied in size from 100 to 22,000 ha and represent distinct climatic conditions. To our knowledge, this is the first application of this model in European post-fire scenarios. We calibrated and validated the model using catchment runoff data (where available) and nearby streamflow data from both pre- and post-fire periods when runoff data was unavailable. Additionally, we used sediment transport data (where available) along with ash contaminant content data to calibrate and validate erosion and ash transport rates. Model performance was assessed using statistics like Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE), coefficient of determination (R²) and percent bias (PBias (%)). Once the model was calibrated and validated, we estimated the post-fire risk of soil erosion, ash transport, and ash pollutant concentrations in the affected areas. The simulations provided the probabilities of occurrence and return periods for severe erosion events, as well as for ash and contaminant transport events. Based on these simulations, we identified hillslopes that were the main sources of runoff, erosion, ash and contaminant transport. This information is important to managers who can prioritize the application of mitigation treatments and prevention plans. Given the projected increase in fire weather in many regions in Europe, our findings suggest that the WEPPcloud-EU WATAR model is an increasingly useful tool in predicting and mitigating soil erosion and water contamination impacts of European burnt catchments.