ABSTRACT
Soil water repellency (hydrophobicity) prevents water from wetting or infiltrating dry soil. This condition has been documented under a wide range of vegetation types and climates and particularly following forest fires. Water repellency is of considerable interest to land managers, hydrologists and soil scientists because i) it can be induced, enhanced or destroyed during burning and ii) its presence can cause a marked reduction in infiltration rate. This reduction in infiltration is commonly presumed to be the primary cause of the increases in runoff and erosion that are often observed at a range of scales following forest fires. The goal of this chapter is to provide a basic understanding of soil water repellency, its measurement, the effects of burning on soil water repellency, and its relative importance in runoff and erosion processes at different scales.
