June 22 - 25, 2025
Delta Hotel and Conference Centre
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Biography
Idil Akin is an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at UCLA. She earned her PhD in 2017 and MS in 2014 from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her BS in 2012 from Middle East Technical University, Turkiye. Her primary research focuses on the fundamental mechanisms that control physicochemical, mechanical, and hydraulic soil behavior. Her current research is in post-wildfire slope stability and bio-inspired and bio-mediated geotechnics. Her research has been sponsored by NSF, DOTs, and industry. She is a recipient of the 2021 NSF CAREER Award.
Abstract
US wildfire management strategy has changed from “fighting with wildfires” to “living with wildfires”, which focuses on communities adapting to and coexisting with fires. Post-wildfire slope stability issues (i.e., erosion, landslide, debris flow) are cascading risks to communities. Post-wildfire landslides are a particular risk because the fundamental initiation mechanisms are not yet understood. As a result, there is no wildfire-specific approach to evaluating the landslide susceptibility of burned hillslopes. This talk will present an overview of post-wildfire slope stability issues with a particular focus on temporal changes in soil properties and soil water retention after a wildfire and implications to landslide susceptibility.