1.2 Coordonnées des personnes-ressources et des institutions impliquées dans l'évaluation et la documentation de la Technologie

Nom du projet qui a facilité la documentation/ l'évaluation de la Technologie (si pertinent)

Catastrophic shifts in drylands (EU-CASCADE)

Nom du projet qui a facilité la documentation/ l'évaluation de la Technologie (si pertinent)

Preventing and Remediating degradation of soils in Europe through Land Care (EU-RECARE )

Nom du ou des institutions qui ont facilité la documentation/ l'évaluation de la Technologie (si pertinent)

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

Nom du ou des institutions qui ont facilité la documentation/ l'évaluation de la Technologie (si pertinent)

University of Aveiro (University of Aveiro) - Portugal

1.3 Conditions relatives à l'utilisation par WOCAT des données documentées

Le compilateur et la(les) personne(s) ressource(s) acceptent les conditions relatives à l'utilisation par WOCAT des données documentées:

Oui

2.1 Courte description de la Technologie

Définition de la Technologie:

Hydromulch is spread immediately after a wildfire in order to reduce overland flow and prevent soil erosion.

2.2 Description détaillée de la Technologie

Description:

The research team of the University of Aveiro in collaboration with the fire Brigade and a private company applied the hydromulch in a burnt pine area burnt at moderate fire severity. Hydromulch was spreaded manually from a jet hose over a group of erosion plots, and both runoff and erosion were compared to an untreated group of plots.
The hydromulch was applied at a ratio of 3.5 Mg ha-1 providing an initial ground cover of 80%, and was found to reduce post-fire runoff in 70% and soil erosion in 83%.

Purpose of the Technology: Hydromulch has been particularly useful on steep slopes and strongly modified areas such as quarries, construction sites, and cut and fill slopes along roads (Robichaud et al., 2010). The hydromulch is a complex mixture which contain basically water and wood or paper fibers. Additionally it can contain seeds, surfactants, seed-growing biostimulants, nutrients and a green colorant. It is intended that each component affected some of the pieces of the post-fire runoff erosion process.
The high effectiveness in runoff reduction could be related to the effect of the wood fibers, because it increases the surface water storage capacity, but also due to the effect of the surfactants, a wetting agent that reduces SWR and increases soil infiltration. Ideally, post-fire hydromulching must be carried out immediately after the fire, over bare, unprotected and steep burnt areas. It is intended for places in which burnt severity was moderate to high and where there are very important values at risk, such as water reservoirs, populations, industries, human and wild life.

Establishment / maintenance activities and inputs: The hydromulch is applied once, immediately after the wildfire, aerially, from a tractor or also manually by using a jet hose operated by a person on foot. It basically consisted of a mixture of water, wood fibers and seeds. The seed composition should include autoctonous plant species, in order to avoid alien species into the burnt area and increase the germination success. Besides the composition, the application technique can influence the hydromulch effectiveness. Rough (2007) and Robichaud et al. (2010) reported that the hydromulch sprayed from vehicles was intercepted by the standing trees, and they recommended special caution when applying the mixture in areas with a high density of dead trees and from long distances. Aerial hydromulch can be a better and less expensive option, but Hubbert et al. (2012) checked that the intended application rates of 50% and 100% hydromulch cover resulted in only 20–26% and 56%.

Natural / human environment: The natural forest in central Portugal has been substituted by pine and eucalypt trees that are typically planted as monocultures for wood and paper pulp production. The landscape reflects a long history of intense land management, with a mosaic of (semi-) natural and man-made agricultural and afforested lands. In recent years, however, wildfires have increased dramatically in frequency and extent, and have been associated to soil fertility losses, and consequently to socio-economic losses.

2.3 Photos de la Technologie

2.5 Pays/ région/ lieux où la Technologie a été appliquée et qui sont couverts par cette évaluation

2.6 Date de mise en œuvre de la Technologie

Si l'année précise est inconnue, indiquez la date approximative: :

• il y a entre 10-50 ans

2.7 Introduction de la Technologie

Spécifiez comment la Technologie a été introduite: :

• au cours d'expérimentations / de recherches

Commentaires (type de projet, etc.) :

Hydromulch has been particularly useful on steep slopes and strongly modified areas such as quarries, construction sites, and cut and fill slopes along roads (Emanual, 1976; Benik et al., 2003; Robichaud et al., 2010).

3.2 Type(s) actuel(s) d'utilisation des terres, là où la Technologie est appliquée

Commentaires:

Major land use problems (compiler’s opinion): Increased runoff and soil erosion, resulting in a decrease of on-site fertility and derived off-site effects such as loss of water quality, reservoirs water volume storage, higher risk of flooding and human beings damage.
Major land use problems (land users’ perception): Loss of wood resources and productivity.
Plantation forestry: Yes
Forest products and services: timber, fuelwood
Constraints of infrastructure network (roads, railways, pipe lines, power lines): price

3.5 Groupe de GDT auquel appartient la Technologie

• Amélioration de la couverture végétale/ du sol

3.6 Mesures de GDT constituant la Technologie

Commentaires:

Main measures: agronomic measures

Type of agronomic measures: mulching

3.7 Principaux types de dégradation des terres traités par la Technologie

Commentaires:

Main type of degradation addressed: Wt: loss of topsoil / surface erosion

Secondary types of degradation addressed: Wg: gully erosion / gullying, Wo: offsite degradation effects, Pk: sealing and crusting

Main causes of degradation: deforestation / removal of natural vegetation (incl. forest fires) (Monoculture of forest plantations prone to forest fires)

3.8 Prévention, réduction de la dégradation ou réhabilitation des terres dégradées

Spécifiez l'objectif de la Technologie au regard de la dégradation des terres:

• réduire la dégradation des terres

Commentaires:

Main goals: mitigation / reduction of land degradation

4.1 Dessin technique de la Technologie

4.2 Informations générales sur le calcul des intrants et des coûts

autre/ monnaie nationale (précisez):

euros

Indiquez le taux de change des USD en devise locale, le cas échéant (p.ex. 1 USD = 79.9 réal brésilien): 1 USD = :

0,78

4.3 Activités de mise en place/ d'établissement

	Activité	Calendrier des activités (saisonnier)
1.	Apply hydromulch
2.	Trasportation (Track with a jet-spreading system)
3.	Other

4.4 Coûts et intrants nécessaires à la mise en place

	Spécifiez les intrants	Unité	Quantité	Coûts par unité	Coût total par intrant	% des coût supporté par les exploitants des terres
Main d'œuvre	Labour	ha	1,0	128,2	128,2	100,0
Equipements	Machine use	ha	1,0	128,2	128,2	100,0
Autre	Hydromulch	ha	1,0	3205,0	3205,0	100,0
Autre	Others	ha	1,0	128,2	128,2	100,0
Coût total de mise en place de la Technologie					3589,6

Commentaires:

Duration of establishment phase: 0.1 month(s)
Lifespan of the hydromulch: 1 year

4.6 Coûts et intrants nécessaires aux activités d'entretien/ récurrentes (par an)

Commentaires:

The prices were determined in winter 2009 for central Portugal. In other regions and for other formulations these prices can vary. When compared with straw mulch its price is extremely high, but despite this greater expense, hydromulching has been used especially in the USA after some fires when access was difficult, the slopes were too steep or subject to wind to use straw mulch and when there were particularly important ‘values at risk’, such as water reservoirs, cultural or natural heritage sites, national or regional wildlife protected areas or industrial plants

4.7 Facteurs les plus importants affectant les coûts

Décrivez les facteurs les plus importants affectant les coûts :

Accessibility and steepness will raise the costs, but selecting hydromulchings is also a main factor. The more complex the hydromulch the more expensive the application cost. Hydromulch with seeds have also the possibility of introducing invasive plants into the ecosystems and increase the costs. For large and inaccessible areas the aerial hydromulch can reduce the costs.

5.1 Climat

5.2 Topographie

5.3 Sols

Si disponible, joignez une description complète du sol ou précisez les informations disponibles, par ex., type de sol, pH/ acidité du sol, capacité d'échange cationique, azote, salinité, etc.

Soil texture is medium (sandy-loam)
Soil fertilits is high
Topsoil organic matter is high (forest soil)
Soil drainage/infiltration is poor-medium
Soil water storage capacity is low

5.4 Disponibilité et qualité de l'eau

Commentaires et précisions supplémentaires sur la qualité et la quantité d'eau:

Water quality (untreated) is for agriculutral use only (surface water)

5.5 Biodiversité

Commentaires et précisions supplémentaires sur la biodiversité:

Forest plantation

5.6 Caractéristiques des exploitants des terres appliquant la Technologie

Indiquez toute autre caractéristique pertinente des exploitants des terres:

Population density: < 10 persons/km2
Annual population growth: < 0.5%
40% of the land users are average wealthy.
60% of the land users are poor.
Market orientation of production system: subsistence (self-supply), mixed (subsistence/ commercial, commercial/ market

5.7 Superficie moyenne des terres utilisées par les exploitants des terres appliquant la Technologie

5.8 Propriété foncière, droits d’utilisation des terres et de l'eau

Propriété foncière:

• individu, sans titre de propriété

5.9 Accès aux services et aux infrastructures

6.1 Impacts sur site que la Technologie a montrés

Impacts socio-économiques

Production

Disponibilité et qualité de l'eau

Impacts socioculturels

Impacts écologiques

Cycle de l'eau/ ruissellement

Sols

Biodiversité: végétale, animale

6.2 Impacts hors site que la Technologie a montrés

6.3 Exposition et sensibilité de la Technologie aux changements progressifs et aux évènements extrêmes/catastrophes liés au climat (telles que perçues par les exploitants des terres)

Changements climatiques progressifs

Changements climatiques progressifs

	Saison	Augmentation ou diminution	Comment la Technologie fait-elle face à cela?
températures annuelles		augmente	bien

Extrêmes climatiques (catastrophes)

Catastrophes météorologiques

	Comment la Technologie fait-elle face à cela?
pluie torrentielle locale	bien
tempête de vent locale	bien

Catastrophes climatiques

	Comment la Technologie fait-elle face à cela?
sécheresse	bien

Catastrophes hydrologiques

	Comment la Technologie fait-elle face à cela?
inondation générale (rivière)	pas connu

Autres conséquences liées au climat

Autres conséquences liées au climat

	Comment la Technologie fait-elle face à cela?
réduction de la période de croissance	bien

6.4 Analyse coûts-bénéfices

Quels sont les bénéfices comparativement aux coûts de mise en place (du point de vue des exploitants des terres)?

Quels sont les bénéfices comparativement aux coûts d'entretien récurrents (du point de vue des exploitants des terres)?

Commentaires:

Hydromulch is seen as a very expensive treatment without clear advantages at the short term, but good at the long term period.

6.5 Adoption de la Technologie

Commentaires:

Comments on spontaneous adoption: The technology has not been applied by any land user. It is a newly research-developed technology.

There is no trend towards spontaneous adoption of the Technology

Comments on adoption trend: The owners are not aware because of the costs, but they will change if the government start funding it.

6.7 Points forts/ avantages/ possibilités de la Technologie

Points forts/ avantages/ possibilités du point de vue de l'exploitant des terres
It will prevent sediment movement and accumulation over roads and down slope properties and values at risk. How can they be sustained / enhanced? By developing more economic application formulations and schemes.

Points forts/ avantages/ possibilités du point de vue du compilateur ou d'une autre personne ressource clé

It is a technology that has the advantages of the mulching technique and also can be used as a tool for increase the biodiversity, expand the distribution of some protected plant species at the same time that soil is keep in place. How can they be sustained / enhanced? The use of longer mulch fibers can still increase the hydromulch effectiveness, since some researchers found the longest fibers to be more effective in soil erosion control than the shorter ones.

6.8 Faiblesses/ inconvénients/ risques de la Technologie et moyens de les surmonter

Faiblesses/ inconvénients/ risques du point de vue du compilateur ou d'une autre personne ressource clé	Comment peuvent-ils être surmontés?
Hydromulch is very expensive when compared to straw mulch, but not more effective in post-fire soil erosion reduction.	To develop hydromulch mixtures using the lowest amount of water as well as other chemical components to the minimum.
Some researchers found very low performance due to the interception of the hydromulch jet by the dead standing trees	Verify when applying it that the ground coverreach a minimum of 60%
Sometimes the mulch component (wood fibers, chopped paper) can be removed very easily by heavy rainfall, and thus treatment effectiveness can decrease greatly.

7.1 Méthodes/ sources d'information

7.2 Références des publications disponibles

Titre, auteur, année, ISBN:

EFFECTIVENESS OF HYDROMULCHING TO REDUCE RUNOFF AND EROSION
IN A RECENTLY BURNT PINE PLANTATION IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL. Prats et al. (in press). Land Degradation and Development DOI: 10.1002/ldr.2236


2-Effects of hydromulch on post-fire erosion and plant recovery in chaparral shrublands of
southern California. Hubbert et al. 2012 International Journal of Wildland Fire 21:155–167.
Rough D. 2007. Effectiveness of rehabilitation treatments in reducing postfire
erosion after the Hayman and Schoonover fires, Colorado Front
Range. Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University. MsC. Thesis; 186.
Robichaud PR, Ashmun LE, Sims BD. 2010. Post-fire treatment effectiveness
for hillslope stabilization. General Technical Report, RMRS-GTR-240. U.
S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research
Station, Fort Collins, CO.