Wildfires modify the physical, hydrological and mechanical properties of soils and rocks, influencing slope stability, sediment availability and catchment response. Loss of vegetation cover and root reinforcement, changes in soil water repellency and cohesion, and thermal damage to near-surface rock masses can initiate or condition geohydrological processes during and after fire. Understanding how these changes propagate across hillslopes and catchments, and evolve from the immediate aftermath to subsequent years, remains essential for assessing post-fire hazards and landscape evolution.
This session focuses on the links between fire-induced material alterations, process initiation and sediment transfer in burned landscapes. Relevant processes include rock spalling and rockfalls, dry ravel, shallow landslides, accelerated erosion, debris and mud flows, and sediment-laden floods. Particular attention is given to the controls exerted by burn severity, geological and geotechnical conditions, rainfall and sediment connectivity, and to their implications for cascading hazards. Contributions addressing individual processes and their interactions are equally welcome.
We invite new field evidence, laboratory characterization, inventories and monitoring studies using in-situ and remote sensing methods. Modelling advances may address post-fire slope instability, initiation thresholds, runout, sediment mobilisation and hillslope–catchment connectivity. We particularly encourage studies that relate measured changes in soil and rock properties to observed geomorphic responses, constrain spatial and temporal variability, and evaluate model performance and uncertainty. Comparative and multitemporal analyses can help establish the transferability of methods across geological settings, fire regimes and stages of post-fire recovery.
The session also welcomes rapid post-fire assessments, susceptibility and hazard mapping, exposure and risk analysis, early-warning approaches, and evaluations of mitigation and management strategies. Case studies from the Mediterranean region, California, Australia, higher-latitude environments and other fire-affected regions are invited, especially those providing practical lessons and transferable examples for future wildfire scenarios. By integrating process characterisation, inventories, monitoring and modelling, the session aims to advance the understanding and mitigation of post-fire geohydrological hazards.