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Consequences of forest fires on the hydrogeological response of mountain catchments: a case study of the Riale Buffaga, Ticino, Switzerland

2003; Wiley; Volume: 28; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/esp.425

1096-9837

Marco Conedera, Larissa Peter, Peter Marxer, Felix Forster, Dieter Rickenmann, Lorenza Re,

Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes

Abstract The debris flow of 28 August 1997 which occurred in the Riale Buffaga, a torrent channel in the territory of the village of Ronco s./Ascona (Ticino, Switzerland), has been simulated with a good degree of reliability due to the existence of morphologic surveys of the torrent channel preceding the flood event and the presence of a rain gauge that registered the rainfall event at a resolution of 10 minutes. With these data it is possible to conduct a quantitative analysis of the effect of a forest fire on the hydrogeological response of a given catchment. In the case at hand, a 10‐year rainfall event caused a 100‐ to 200‐year flood event. This result clearly quantifies the possible consequences of a forest fire in terms of territorial safety. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.