Annually, millions of hectares of land are affected by wildfires worldwide, disrupting ecosystems functioning by affecting on-site vegetation, soil, and above- and belowground biodiversity, but also triggering erosive off-site impacts such as water-bodies contamination or mudflows. Here, we present a soil erosion assessment following the 2017’s wildfires at the European scale, including an analysis of vegetation recovery and soil erosion mitigation potential. Results indicate a sharp increase in soil losses with 19.4 million Mg additional erosion in the first post-fire year when compared to unburned conditions. Over five years, 44 million Mg additional soil losses were estimated, and 46% of the burned area presented no signs of full recovery. Post-fire mitigation could attenuate these impacts by 63-77%, reducing soil erosion to background levels by the 4th post-fire year. Our insights may help identifying target policies to reduce land degradation, as identified in the European Union Soil, Forest, and Biodiversity strategies.
Title: Post-fire soil erosion in Europe
Description: This dataset contains the soil erosion estimations resulting of a study that mapped post-fire soil erosion in EU and UK following the 2017’s wildfires during 5 post-fire years. Five maps (GeoTIFF) and their corresponding dataframe (Rdata) are provided at 25m resolution, from year 1 (2017) to year 5 (2021). The maps express ‘predicted soil losses’ (A, Mg ha-1 y-1).
Pixel size: 25m
Measurement Unit: t (Mg) ha-1 yr-1
Projection: EPSG 3035: ETRS89-extended / LAEA Europe
Temporal coverage: 2017-2021
More information: Post fire soil erosion
Reference: Vieira, D.C.S., Borrelli, P., Jahanianfard, D., Benali, A., Scarpa, S. and Panagos, P., 2023. Wildfires in Europe: Burned soils require attention. Environmental research, 217, Art. No. 114936.
Post-fire soil erosion estimations averaged by 25 × 25 km grid for EU and UK, for the first year following the 2017 wildfires | 
Methodological approach |
Post-fire soil erosion estimates in the European Union, 2017–2025 (Dataset) (Update: 24/08/2026)
Description: This dataset contains the soil erosion estimations produced using the methodology of Vieira et al., 2023 for individual fire years, and extend the existing monitoring framework with updated results through 2025. Nine maps (GeoTIFF) are provided at 100m resolution, from 2017 to 2025. The maps express ‘predicted soil losses’ (A, Mg ha-1 y-1).
Pixel size: 100m
Measurement Unit: t (Mg) ha-1 yr-1
Projection: EPSG 3035: ETRS89-extended / LAEA Europe
Temporal coverage: 2017-2025
More information: Post fire soil erosion
This dataset provides annual estimates of soil erosion during the first year following wildfire that occurred across the European Union between 2017 and 2025. The estimates were produced using the methodology of Vieira et al., 2023 and extend the existing monitoring framework with updated results through 2025. The dataset supports the continued assessment of post-fire soil erosion in the EU and helps identify critical areas where rapid mitigation and recovery measures may be required.
Post-fire erosion estimates are particularly relevant for identifying areas potentially exposed to associated hazards, including sediment mobilization, debris flows and landslides. The dataset therefore provides an EU-wide overview of areas where post-fire impacts may require further assessment and targeted intervention.
