Floods after bushfires: Rapid responses for reducing impacts of sediment, ash, and nutrient slugs

Australia’s mega-fires of 2019–2020 have burnt over ten millions of hectares 1 – almost twice the size of the 2019 Amazon fires (; Woodward 2020). Forested mountain ranges across the country – the sources of many significant rivers – including from Eastern Victoria to South-East Queensland have burnt.Destructive mega-fires are increasing globally, requiring us to rethink how we live in flammable landscapes (Moritz et al. 2014; Pyne 2018). We know from experience in Australia that major fires are ‘resetting’ events for communities (Teague, McLeod, and Pascoe 2010;Griffiths 2016) and ecosystems (Adams 2013; Keenan and Nitschke 2016). These fires may also trigger the resetting of national climate policies (both adaptation and mitigation), given that they have sparked a fierce national debate about climate change and its impacts