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Fires in forested catchments pose a water contamination risk from fire-derived dissolved organic matter (DOM). Fire events are expected to increase under a projection of warmer and drier climatic conditions; therefore, understanding the consequences of fire-derived DOM is critical for water supply and management of drinking water and catchments. This paper addresses how fire regime - the intensity, severity and frequency of fires - influences DOM quantity and composition in surface waters in forested catchments, and how long it takes for water quality to recover to pre-fire levels. A review of post-fire studies in Mediterranean regions reporting on DOM related parameters has been conducted. The literature shows that post-fire DOM composition and reactivity is different from DOM generated under processes of biological degradation, and hence our reliance on DOM ‘bulk properties’ and surrogate DOM bulk …