Rapid assessment of hillslope erosion risk after the 2019–2020 wildfires and storm events in sydney drinking water catchment

Yang, X; Zhang, M; Oliveira, L; Ollivier, QR; Faulkner, S; Roff, A

Rapid assessment of hillslope erosion risk after the 2019–2020 wildfires and storm events in sydney drinking water catchment

Yang, X

Zhang, M

Oliveira, L Ollivier, QR Faulkner, S Roff, A

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Publisher:: MDPI
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Remote Sensing, 2020, 12, (22)
Issue Date:: 2020-11-02

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Yang, X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5990-2186
dc.contributor.author	Zhang, M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5431-9274
dc.contributor.author	Oliveira, L
dc.contributor.author	Ollivier, QR
dc.contributor.author	Faulkner, S
dc.contributor.author	Roff, A
dc.date.accessioned	2021-01-13T05:44:24Z
dc.date.available	2021-01-13T05:44:24Z
dc.date.issued	2020-11-02
dc.identifier.citation	Remote Sensing, 2020, 12, (22)
dc.identifier.issn	2072-4292
dc.identifier.issn	2072-4292
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/145393
dc.description.abstract	© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The Australian Black Summer wildfires between September 2019 and January 2020 burnt many parts of eastern Australia including major forests within the Sydney drinking water catchment (SDWC) area, almost 16.000 km2. There was great concern on post-fire erosion and water quality hazards to Sydney’s drinking water supply, especially after the heavy rainfall events in February 2020. We developed a rapid and innovative approach to estimate post-fire hillslope erosion using weather radar, remote sensing, Google Earth Engine (GEE), Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). The event-based rainfall erosivity was estimated from radar-derived rainfall accumulations for all storm events after the wildfires. Satellite data including Sentinel-2, Landsat-8, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used to estimate the fractional vegetation covers and the RUSLE cover-management factor. The study reveals that the average post-fire erosion rate over SDWC in February 2020 was 4.9 Mg ha−1 month−1, about 30 times higher than the pre-fire erosion and 10 times higher than the average erosion rate at the same period because of the intense storm events and rainfall erosivity with a return period over 40 years. The high post-fire erosion risk areas (up to 23.8 Mg ha−1 month−1) were at sub-catchments near Warragamba Dam which forms Lake Burragorang and supplies drinking water to more than four million people in Sydney. These findings assist in the timely assessment of post-fire erosion and water quality risks and help develop cost-effective fire incident management and mitigation actions for such an area with both significant ecological and drinking water assets. The methodology developed from this study is potentially applicable elsewhere for similar studies as the input datasets (satellite and radar data) and computing platforms (GEE, GIS) are available and accessible worldwide.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	MDPI
dc.relation.ispartof	Remote Sensing
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.3390/rs12223805
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	0203 Classical Physics, 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience, 0909 Geomatic Engineering
dc.title	Rapid assessment of hillslope erosion risk after the 2019–2020 wildfires and storm events in sydney drinking water catchment
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	12
utslib.for	0203 Classical Physics
utslib.for	0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
utslib.for	0909 Geomatic Engineering
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Science
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Science/School of Life Sciences
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
pubs.consider-herdc	false
dc.date.updated	2021-01-13T05:44:17Z
pubs.issue	22
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	12
utslib.citation.issue	22

Abstract:

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The Australian Black Summer wildfires between September 2019 and January 2020 burnt many parts of eastern Australia including major forests within the Sydney drinking water catchment (SDWC) area, almost 16.000 km2. There was great concern on post-fire erosion and water quality hazards to Sydney’s drinking water supply, especially after the heavy rainfall events in February 2020. We developed a rapid and innovative approach to estimate post-fire hillslope erosion using weather radar, remote sensing, Google Earth Engine (GEE), Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). The event-based rainfall erosivity was estimated from radar-derived rainfall accumulations for all storm events after the wildfires. Satellite data including Sentinel-2, Landsat-8, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used to estimate the fractional vegetation covers and the RUSLE cover-management factor. The study reveals that the average post-fire erosion rate over SDWC in February 2020 was 4.9 Mg ha−1 month−1, about 30 times higher than the pre-fire erosion and 10 times higher than the average erosion rate at the same period because of the intense storm events and rainfall erosivity with a return period over 40 years. The high post-fire erosion risk areas (up to 23.8 Mg ha−1 month−1) were at sub-catchments near Warragamba Dam which forms Lake Burragorang and supplies drinking water to more than four million people in Sydney. These findings assist in the timely assessment of post-fire erosion and water quality risks and help develop cost-effective fire incident management and mitigation actions for such an area with both significant ecological and drinking water assets. The methodology developed from this study is potentially applicable elsewhere for similar studies as the input datasets (satellite and radar data) and computing platforms (GEE, GIS) are available and accessible worldwide.

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