Sustainable Practices in Watershed Management: Global Experiences

Watershed management is considered by scholars as well as practitioners across the world as the most appropriate approach to ensure the preservation, conservation and sustainability of all land based resources and for improving the living conditions of the people in uplands and low lands. More over watershed management technologies have proven to be effective for mitigating erosion on sloping land, stabilizing landscapes, providing clean water, stabilizing and improving agrarian production systems on small and medium scale. The degree of success of watershed management interventions primarily depends on the will of the people and the scale of activities involved in it. A watershed can be defined as a catchment or drainage basin. It refers to an area which has a ridgeline on three sides and whose surplus run-off is drained from a drainage point. Watershed management is the art and technique of managing watershed resources in way that maximum benefits can be derived from them without affecting the ecological sustainability. Watershed management requires an integration of all scientific knowledge from many disciplines and a combination of technologies, strategies and techniques with the development and use of available tools. Watershed management is a holistic concept, which tries to integrate several components like soil and water conservation, forestry development, agriculture and livestock. It tries to bring about the best possible balance in the environment between natural resources on the one side, and human and other living beings on the other. Recently, participation of people has become a core component of watershed management programmes. As FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization] rightly remarked, “The pendulum appears to be swinging in support of empowerment of people with regard to conservation of natural resources. Application of the integrated participatory approach has created, in some instances, social environments where varied cultures are working together to manage their natural resources on watersheds” . Thus, the process of stakeholder centric watershed management programme has provided a stimulus for the recovery and valuation of traditional practices resulting in a mix of ancient and current natural resource management practices. Against this context the present paper attempts to present certain specific models of sustainable watershed management successfully implemented in different parts of the world. The objective of the paper is to explore the methods, tools and strategies involved in these sustainable models.watershed Management, Water, Natural Resource

The impact of agricultural activities on water quality: a case for collaborative catchment-scale management using integrated wireless sensor networks

The challenge of improving water quality is a growing global concern, typified by the European Commission Water Framework Directive and the United States Clean Water Act. The main drivers of poor water quality are economics, poor water management, agricultural practices and urban development. This paper reviews the extensive role of non-point sources, in particular the outdated agricultural practices, with respect to nutrient and contaminant contributions. Water quality monitoring (WQM) is currently undertaken through a number of data acquisition methods from grab sampling to satellite based remote sensing of water bodies. Based on the surveyed sampling methods and their numerous limitations, it is proposed that wireless sensor networks (WSNs), despite their own limitations, are still very attractive and effective for real-time spatio-temporal data collection for WQM applications. WSNs have been employed for WQM of surface and ground water and catchments, and have been fundamental in advancing the knowledge of contaminants trends through their high resolution observations. However, these applications have yet to explore the implementation and impact of this technology for management and control decisions, to minimize and prevent individual stakeholder’s contributions, in an autonomous and dynamic manner. Here, the potential of WSN-controlled agricultural activities and different environmental compartments for integrated water quality management is presented and limitations of WSN in agriculture and WQM are identified. Finally, a case for collaborative networks at catchment scale is proposed for enabling cooperation among individually networked activities/stakeholders (farming activities, water bodies) for integrated water quality monitoring, control and management

Participatory operations model for cost-efficient monitoring and modeling of river basins — A systematic approach

AbstractThe worldwide economic downturn and the climate change in the beginning of 21st century have stressed the need for cost efficient and systematic operations model for the monitoring and management of surface waters. However, these processes are still all too fragmented and incapable to respond these challenges. For example in Finland, the estimation of the costs and benefits of planned management measures is insufficient. On this account, we present a new operations model to streamline these processes and to ensure the lucid decision making and the coherent implementation which facilitate the participation of public and all the involved stakeholders. The model was demonstrated in the real world management of a lake. The benefits, pitfalls and development needs were identified. After the demonstration, the operations model was put into operation and has been actively used in several other management projects throughout Finland

Stakeholder consultation workshops

This deliverable is relative to Task 7.3 - Stakeholder advisory board periodic consultation workshops, and summarises the main activities developed during those workshops and the most relevant outcomes, in the framework of the MADFORWATER project

The adaptation continuum: groundwork for the future

The focus of the program was to understand the challenges posed by climate change and climate variability on vulnerable groups and the policies needed to support climate adaptation in developing countries. The aim of the book is to share this experience in the hope that it will be helpful to those involved in shaping and implementing climate change policy