The Rural Fires of 2017 and Their Influences on Water Quality: An Assessment of Causes and Effects.

As water is facing increasing pressures from population and economic growth and climate change, it becomes imperative to promote the protection, restoration and management of this resource and its watersheds. Since water quality depends on multiple factors both natural and anthropic, it is not easy to establish their influences. After the October 2017 fires that affected almost 30% of the Mondego hydrographic basin in Central Portugal, 10 catchments were selected for periodic physical-chemical monitoring. These monitoring campaigns started one month after the fires and lasted for two hydrological years, measuring the electric conductivity (EC), pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), turbidity (Turb), alkalinity (Alk), major and minor ions, and trace elements. The obtained data were then statistically analysed alongside the geomorphological characteristics of each catchment coupled with features of land-use and occupation. From the results, it was possible to establish that fire-affected artificial areas, through the atmospheric deposition and surface runoff of combustion products, had the most impact on surface water quality, increasing As, K-, Ca2+, Mg2+, NO3-, SO42- and Sr, and consequently increasing electrical conductivity. Agricultural land-use seems to play a major influence in raising the water's EC, Cl, K- and Na2+. Regarding natural factors such as catchment geology, it was found that the extent of igneous exposures influences As, and the carbonate sedimentary units are a source of Ca2+ and HCO32- concentrations and impose an increase in alkalinity. Rainfall seems, in the short term, to increase the water concentration in Al and NO3-, while also raising turbidity due to sediments dragged by surface runoff. While, in the long-term, rainfall reduces the concentrations of elements in surface water and approximates the water's pH to rainfall features.

A comprehensive approach to understanding flood risk drivers at the municipal level.

During the period 1998-2017, floods were responsible for 11% of the loss of life and 23% of the economic loss caused by climate-related and geophysical-related disasters worldwide. An integrated and effective definition of flood risk management strategies therefore still requires synthesized and comprehensive knowledge about the driving forces of flood risk. In this study, 278 Portuguese municipalities are analyzed and classified according to flood hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. After evaluating the three components that describe risk, an index of the flood risk is calculated and a cluster analysis is further performed to understand the role of the risk drivers (hazard, exposure, and vulnerability) in each municipality. The proposed approach therefore provides flood risk indexes on a municipal basis, which are built upon different sources of both cell-by-cell data and an aggregation of municipal-level data that has been statistically validated. Municipalities both in the NW part of the country and along the valleys of major rivers demonstrate a significant superimposition of high levels of exposure and hazard, while vulnerability presents a disperse pattern throughout the country. The results obtained using this approach should contribute to the diversification of flood risk management strategies. This is still lacking in the majority of the national-level flood risk governance processes, namely those strategies that focus on the contingency of daily activities and those aiming at a long-term reduction of the exposure, vulnerability, and hazard components that shape flood disasters.

Multidimensional Approach for Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment: Framing the Territorial Impacts in Two Municipalities in Portugal.

This study presents a new multidimensional methodology for tsunami vulnerability assessment that combines the morphological, structural, social, and tax component of vulnerability. This new approach can be distinguished from previous methodologies that focused primarily on the evaluation of potentially affected buildings and did not use tsunami numerical modeling. The methodology was applied to the Figueira da Foz and Vila do Bispo municipalities in Portugal. For each area, the potential tsunami-inundated areas were calculated considering the 1755 Lisbon tsunami, which is the greatest disaster caused by natural hazards that ever occurred in Portugal. Furthermore, the four components of the vulnerability were calculated to obtain a composite vulnerability index. This methodology enables us to differentiate the two areas in their vulnerability, highlighting the characteristics of the territory components. This methodology can be a starting point for the creation of a local assessment framework at the municipal scale related to tsunami risk. In addition, the methodology is an important support for the different local stakeholders.