Sustainability of land use in La Palma (Spain). Investigation of soil erosion in consideration of the fire history

The conservation of soil as a main resource plays an important role in consideration of a sustainable land use, i.e. securing the supply and satisfying the basic needs. Particular in the Mediterranean and subtropical region frequent wildfires lead to increasing soil erosion, that varies according to the land use form, amongst others.One target of the investigation is to quantify the soil erosion in post-fire sites with different land use (canary pine stands and vineyard areas) and to assess the sustainability in view of soil conservation. Thereby the driving forces are fire history, topography, precipitation and soil properties. For the quantification of the erosion rates, a 3D terrestrial Laser Scanner (Riegl, LMS Z420i) and dGPS is used.