Post-Fire Ground Treatments

Details

• Creators:
  Bareither, Christopher A ; Heyliger, Paul ; Moden, Kayla ; Peterson, Kirsten
• Corporate Creators:
  Colorado State University, Fort Collins
• Corporate Contributors:
  Colorado. Department of Transportation ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Corrosion Geotechnical Engineering Mulching Numerical Control Rainfall Runoff Simulation Slopes Soils Storms Summer Vegetation Wildfires

  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  CDOT-2018
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; Colorado
• Edition:
  Final Report: 1/1/16 to 12/31/17
• Corporate Publisher:
  Colorado. Department of Transportation
• Abstract:
  The objective of this project was to assess the efficacy of post-fire ground treatment in mitigating erosion and runoff on soil slopes subjected to wildfires. This objective was achieved through physical slope-model experiments and discrete element method (DEM) modeling. The physical experiments were conducted on block soil samples collected from U.S. Forest Service land in Colorado. The samples included were subjected to rainfall simulations characteristic of a typical short-duration, high-intensity summer storm. Rainfall simulations were completed on block samples with natural intact vegetation, burned vegetation, and burned vegetation plus straw mulch applied as ground cover. Soil erosion measured on the burned soil samples increased relative to the unburned soils. However, the presence of straw mulch on the surface of a burned soil reduced erosion to levels coincident with natural intact vegetation. The DEM models were completed on 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional assemblies of particles that included different arrangements of reinforcements to simulate soils with root networks present in unburned soils with intact vegetation compared to burned soils with the root networks destroyed from burning. Model simulations indicated that an increase in the root network inhibited particles dislodgement and decreased downslope movement of particles.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0b8f7426144170be0c3a6b5ae07c2b7b23d666fe5b8f4777f6fc767a8c1d0fe04b27df9092bb1abce3fba5b44351dad55f51865348fc04acc10e9fe42be1f376
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/88677/dot_88677_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 13.24 MB ]