Gully-head contribution to sediment production and land-use/vegetation effects

Gully-Head threshold equations can be used in scenario analysis to predict/assess the potential impact of topographic and land use changes on soil erosion and sediment production on slopes. The changes in land use and vegetation covers cause shift of the gully head locations, corresponding to different pattern of erosion and sedimentation. These changes can be due to climatic or to land use planning variations. For instance one possible effect of climate warming is the increase of the susceptibility to forest fires. Here we apply the LANDPLANER (LANDscape, Plants, LANdslides and ERosion) model to simulate the effect of a forest fire occurred in Umbria, Italy, in 2012 on gully erosion. Pre and post fire conditions are analyzed. The results are useful to understand what happen after the fire, how we can plan after-fire interventions and to estimate possible sediment contributions to the local river network. The effects of some preventive actions are examined and compared with field survey data.