6th Sustainability Webinar

Post Wildfire Management: Erosion and Land Degradation Control, Soil Restoration, and Vegetation Cover Recovery

The increased frequency, magnitude, and extent of wildfires, over the past few decades, have become a major societal and environmental concern across the world. These concerns are further aggravated by the likely future climate conditions, increasingly propitious to wildfire ignition and spread where wildfires burn at high severity, and where erosion, runoff, and sedimentation may be triggered by high intensity post-fire rain events.
Therefore, post-fire treatments to limit the potential for soil erosion are increasingly important given that the extensive area burned in recent decades is predicted to increase while human values at risk grow, and vegetation management becomes more challenging in the face of climate change .
The present webinar of Sustainability intends to outline different approaches regarding post-wildfire management, showing the different perspectives and challenges we face in the 21st century.
As this is a crucial issue for sustainable development, strongly threatened by global changes, and since the production of literature today is fast and dispersed by countless thesis, books, and articles, a webinar with some key-speakers from different parts of the world will allow to discuss the most recent results obtained from research in different regions around the globe.

Date: 6 July 2021

Time: 3:00pm CEST | 9:00am EDT | 9:00pm CST Asia

Webinar ID: 821 5392 7777

Webinar Secretariat: sustainability.webinar@mdpi.com

On Tuesday, 6 July 2021, MDPI and the Journal Sustainability organized the 6th webinar on Sustainability, entitled "Post Wildfire Management: Erosion and Land Degradation Control, Soil Restoration, and Vegetation Cover Recovery".

The webinar was moderated by two Chairs, Prof. António Bento Gonçalves and Prof. Dr. António Vieira. The introduction was held by Prof. Dr. António Vieira, Member of the Directive Commission of the Portuguese Association of Geomorphologists and Vice-President of RISKS – the Portuguese Association of Risk, Prevention and Security. Prof. Dr. Vieira has a PhD in Geography from the University of Coimbra and was Assistant professor at the Department of Geography at the University of Minho. Within the same University he became Head of the Department of Geography (2013-2015), and then President of the Portuguese Association of Geomorphologists (2017-2019).

The first speaker to quick off this webinar was Prof. Dr. Paulo Pereira, with his presentation "Fire Impacts on Ecosystem Services". He is full professor in Environmental Science (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania), Head of the Environmental Management Centre and Coordinator of FESP IN – International Network for fire impacts in Soil Properties. Prof. Dr. Pereira is associated editor of Science of the Total Environment (Elsevier), Geography Sustainability (Elsevier) and Helyion (Elsevier).

The second presentation with the title "Post-Wildfire Erosion and Land Degradation: Issues in Landscape Recovery" was held by Dr. Daniel G. Neary, Senior Research Soil Scientist. His main research interests are the impacts of prescribed fires and wildfires on watersheds and soils. He is also active in promoting the sustainable and environmentally sound use of forest bioenergy as a means of dealing with excessive fuel loadings in forests. The environmental fate and effects of forestry pesticides is of his continuing interest.

Prof. Dr. Xavier Úbeda from the Universidad de Barcelona, Spain, was the last speaker and his presentation was entitled "Introduction of Livestock After Wildfires and Prescribed Fires". Besides being a professor, he is also the coordinator of the GRAM (Mediterranean Environmental Research Group) team Research. In 1998, Prof. Dr. Úbeda defended his doctoral thesis focused on the study of the effects of fire intensity on soil properties and on the generation of runoff and erosion. In 2001, he was able to take part in an examination for a Full Professor at the University, until 2020 when he was promoted to Full Professor. At the scientific level, since 2000s, and as a tenured professor, he was able to start applying for research projects as a principal investigator. Prof. Dr. Úbeda’s stays in the United States at the USGS in Boulder, Colorado in 2004 and 2005, were important to investigate the chemical and physical aspects of the ashes. Also noteworthy is his stay in Edinburgh (2009) and later in Santiago de Chile (2015), where the collaboration continues, as well as with the Geography groups of the Universidade do Minho.

The presentations were followed by a Q&A and a discussion, moderated by the Chair. The webinar was offered via Zoom and required registration to attend. The full recording can be found here on Sciforum website. In order to stay updated on the next webinars on Sustainability, be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking on “Subscribe” at the top of the page.

Post Wildfire Management: Erosion and Land Degradation Control, Soil Restoration, and Vegetation Cover Recovery
Guest Editors: Prof. António Bento-Gonçalves, Prof. Dr. António Vieira, Prof. Maria José Roxo
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2021