100 Basics WSM Summary 1

100 Basics WSM Summary

Module 1: Basics of Watershed Management Summary

IntroductionThis module introduces the reader to all of the fundamental aspects related to watersheds and watershedmanagement. An adequate knowledge of these is required to fully appreciate the contents of the other modules ofthis Resource Kit, and it also builds the foundation for the implementation of watershed management processes.Because this module addresses a wide range of different topics, it has been divided into a general, a bio-physical, anda socio-economic part, the contents of which are presented in the table below. The general part sets the scene byintroducing watersheds and watershed management. It covers aspects such as the importance of water and watershedmanagement, the watershed functions, the concept and impacts of watershed management, as well as the problemsand challenges in watersheds. Furthermore it introduces commonly used methods and instruments. The bio-physicalpart provides detailed information about the environmental and hydrological context in which watershedmanagement takes place, the interaction between watershed elements and the impacts of their changes on waterresources. The socio-economic part introduces the economic and socio-cultural conditions of the Lower MekongBasin region, and also specific issues which have a significant influence on the success of watershed management,such as land tenure, incentive structures, participation, conflict management and gender issues.The contents of the three parts of this module have been summarised below, so as to provide an overview of whatwill be presented in detail in the module’s individual chapters, technical annexes and case studies. Links to therespective chapters are provided at appropriate locations in the text.

Chapters of Module 1: Basics of Watershed Management

General

1.1.1: Watershed Management and Sustainable Development

1.1.2: Watersheds and their Functions

1.1.3: Objectives, Concept and Principles of Watershed Management

1.1.4: A Watershed Management System

1.1.5: Key Problems and Challenges in Watershed Management

1.1.6: Impacts of Watershed Management and Trans-boundary Issues

1.1.7: Methods and Instruments for Watershed Management

Bio-Physics

1.2.1: Watershed Elements

1.2.2: Critical Watersheds and Watershed Classification

1.2.3: The Hydrological Cycle and Water Balance

1.2.4: Land Use Systems in the Region

1.2.5: Impacts of Vegetation and Land Use on Water Resources

1.2.6: Erosion Processes and Control

Socio-Economy

1.3.1: General Socio-cultural Conditions

1.3.2: General Economic Conditions

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1.3.3: Property Rights and Land Tenure Issues

1.3.4: Incentives to Promote the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in Watersheds

1.3.5: Participation

1.3.6: Conflicts and Conflict Management

1.3.7: Gender and Watershed Management

Contents

General

Water is of crucial importance to mankind. Water is one of the earth’s most precious natural resources as it isrequired by all life forms. It is not only essential for human life and natural processes, but also for economicactivities such as agriculture and industry. It is for this reason that the sound management of water resources iscentral to sustainable development and environmental management.Water resources are limited and becoming increasingly scarce. At the same time their use can lead to a variety ofconflicts and negative impacts, especially in upstream downstream settings. In this context a major challenge facingmankind is to meet the steadily increasing human needs whilst sustaining the environment and the resources uponwhich the human society depends.

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the lower Mekong BasinThe water and land resources of the Lower Mekong Basin supportthe livelihoods of some 70 million people. The development andconservation of watersheds in this region, and especially of waterresources in the mountainous upland areas, are of critical importance to achieve the sustainable development ofeconomic and social resources, whilst preserving the environment. It is essential to base the region’s development onthe sustainable use of natural resources, in order to meet the needs of the present generation without compromisingthe ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.1.1

A watershed is, literally, the area which sheds water into a river. Watersheds vary in size and form landscapehierarchies across several scales, from catchments at the micro to river basins at the macro level. They are dividedinto geographically separated upstream and downstream areas, which are connected through a number ofbio-physical and socio-economic linkages.Watersheds represent a natural spatial unit, which is considered to be the most appropriate for the sustainabledevelopment of water and related resources. Only within such a unit can the spatially separated causes and effects ofwater related problems be successfully addressed. Watersheds have functions, which are namely the sustainableprovision of economic, ecological and social goods and services. This functional view reflects the modernunderstanding of watershed management – that there is an interdependency and overlap of the ecological functionswith the economic and social aspects.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.1.2

The watersheds of the Lower Mekong Basin can still be considered relatively “healthy”. However, there are localsigns of ecological stress and resource management problems. It is especially environmental degradation throughthe unsustainable use of natural resources, which is a common threat that causes negative impacts on water resourcesand often has negative social implications such as poverty, food insecurity and conflict. These kinds of problems arerelated to socio-economic, institutional and technical issues, which are often interlinked and difficult to separate. Thecountries in the Lower Mekong Basin have increasingly been paying attention to watershed management as a meansto overcome such existing problems.

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For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.1.5

It is due to its wide range of potential impacts that watershed management can be said to make the concept ofsustainable development operational within watersheds. When it is conducted appropriately, watershed managementbalances the economic, ecological and social dimensions of sustainable development. It links the management ofwater resources with different land uses and with the overall socio-economic development, thereby maintaining thewatershed functions, and in particular avoiding negative eco-hydrological impacts.Consequently, watershed management is not an isolated endeavour or a sector in itself, but instead it is a part of thesocio-economic development agenda. More precisely, it can be perceived as being a multi-stakeholder dialogue,which promotes public participation and facilitates effective collaboration and coordination between all relevantstakeholders from the government, the private sector and civil society, and between sectors such as water resources,agriculture, forestry, environment and land management.

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Therefore watershed management can be understood as being a holistic, inter-disciplinary and people-orientednegotiation and decision-making process that balances the uses and management of water and land resources inorder to secure the provision of desired goods and services in a sustainable way. To this end, watershed managementbrings together top-down policy implementation and bottom-up participatory processes, which result in theformulation of watershed management guidelines for the maintenance of watershed functions. This is beingachieved by fostering the development of lean and flexible institutions, such as watershed management committeesor fora, instead of creating additional layers of bureaucracy. Embedded in this concept is the recognition of theinterrelationships among land use, soil and water, as well as the ecological and socio-economic linkages betweenupstream and downstream areas.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.1.3

In more practical terms, watershed management can be understood as being a well structured system that consists ofdistinct and clearly recognisable elements. As shown in the figure below, these elements include governance andpolicy making, institutions and institutional development, planning, implementation, as well as monitoring andevaluation. It should be noted that modules 2 to 6 of this Resource Kit reflect the structure of this system.

Effective watershed management

Effective watershed management requires all elements of this systemto successfully interact in addressing the complexity of watershedproblems, and thereby ensures that the balance between economic,ecological and social objectives will be achieved.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.1.4

Watershed management interventions and human activities in watersheds can create various local or on-site andexternal or off-site economic, ecological and social impacts, which can be direct or cumulative in nature. In thewatershed management context, impacts on the water quantity and quality as well as on the movement of materialssuch as sediments are of particular interest. Potential or actual external impacts across national boundaries, causedfor example by dam construction for hydropower development, can emerge as trans-boundary issues at a regionallevel.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.1.6

The major challenges of watershed management include, (a) the difficulty in monitoring and assessingmanagement impacts due to complex cause-effect relations; (b) the fact that administrative units, within thehierarchy of which most decisions are made, are commonly not identical with natural watershed boundaries; and (c)that watershed management faces competition and disputes among stakeholders at various levels. Besides this, thereare the impacts of global and regional climate change on water and related resources and their management, whichare still very speculative and difficult to predict.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.1.5

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The application of the watershed management approach requires the use of a variety of methods and instruments.These can be scientific / technical and aim at maximising measurement accuracy, or they can be participatory andaim at maximising involvement of relevant stakeholders, or also they can be a combination of both. Given theoverall participatory nature of watershed management, it is advisable in most cases to draw from both approaches.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.1.7

Bio-PhysicsThe overall bio-physical context within which watershed management is set involves the interaction between manand the hydrological cycle, and man’s influence upon the processes that drive it. Human activities and watershedmanagement interventions modify landscapes in watersheds and create impacts on water and its movement withinthe hydrological cycle.

The hydrological cycle represents the complex processes and pathways of water circulation from land and waterbodies to the atmosphere and back again. It can be considered on a global, and also on a watershed scale. This cycleis of particular importance for watershed management, because its individual components, such as rainfall,evaporation, water infiltration into the ground, as well as overland and underground water flow are affected by landuse changes and can be influenced by land and vegetation management activities.Land use and vegetation management are therefore of great importance in the regulation of water circulation, andthus of water quantity and quality in a watershed. This is mainly because most of the rainfall does not enter streamsor groundwater – instead it is returned to the atmosphere by vegetation using and evaporating it before it is even ableto reach these water bodies. The effects of management interventions on the hydrological cycle can be assessed orpredicted using the so called water balance. This approach analyses the water input through rainfall versus thecorresponding water outputs through evaporation and through overland and underground water flows.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.2.3

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Watersheds consist of elements from both the natural and the human system. The human system interacts with andmanipulates the natural system, thereby causing impacts on the watershed functions. The natural system containsthe natural resources that are necessary for development and for human livelihoods. It comprises various bioticelements, such as vegetation and animals, as well as abiotic elements, such as geology, soils and water resources.These are interlinked and generate products and environmental services.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.2.1

Land use systems are a result of humans using the natural systems that exist in watersheds. They are dynamic andsubject to constant changes. In the Lower Mekong Basin, they mostly consist of a mosaic of agricultural systemsincluding rainfed and irrigated paddy and pasture, forestry systems including both natural forests and plantations,and even mixtures of both such as agro-forestry systems. These systems create specific impacts on hydrologicalprocesses, and thereby on water quantity and quality.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.2.4

As deforestation and forest conversion to agriculture still represent the largest land use changes in the region, it isparticularly important to have a sound understanding of the interactions between forest cover changes and waterresources. It is still commonly believed that only forests are able to properly maintain watershed functions. This hasfrequently produced misleading generalisations and led to an over-emphasis on reforestation and forest protection inprevious watershed management approaches.

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According to current knowledge, the role of forests in maintaining watershed functions is indeed important, but notnecessarily exclusive. It is now increasingly being accepted that integrated landscapes including mosaics of differentland uses can be just as effective as a closed forest cover. Even though the impacts of forests on hydrologicalprocesses and water resources are highly variable and site-specific, the following generalisations can be made: (a)Forests do not generate rainfall, and thus deforestation has no significant impact on rainfall. (b) The reduction inforest cover increases rather than decreases total water availability. (c) Afforestation on land with short non-forestvegetation decreases water availability. (d) The presence or absence of forest only has a very limited influence onmajor down stream flooding. (e) Forests ensure the provision of a better water quality than other land uses, due toreduced erosion and the absence of polluting activities.

In comparison to forests, most agricultural land uses and other vegetation types in the Lower Mekong Basinconsume significantly less water and therefore increase water availability. However, irrigation can increase theannual water use by crops to a level that is close to, or even higher than the water use of forests.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.2.5

Notwithstanding these new insights into the role of forests, land use changes like deforestation and resourcedegradation are major issues of concern in the region, as they often have multiple negative environmental andsocio-economic implications. Changes in land use are the result of numerous and also complex factors. In the LowerMekong Basin, they are mainly caused by the individual responses of local people in watersheds to opportunities andconstraints that are created by changing institutional and economic conditions. Understanding the causes and effectsof such changes is essential for watershed management, as it can help decision makers to formulate appropriatepolicies, as well as to plan and implement adequate interventions.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.2.4

The intensity of land use and other changes in watersheds is an important criteria used to identify the so calledcritical watersheds during planning. In critical watersheds, watershed functions are already critically impaired orare likely to soon become critically impaired due to human activity. In such watersheds, adequate watershedmanagement interventions are most urgently needed. Besides using dynamic criteria as for example land usechanges or changes in the number of people, critical watersheds can also be identified using static criteria such asslope or elevation.

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MRC’s watershed classification approach is an example of the application of static criteria at the regional level. Theapproach segments the landscape into five watershed classes on the basis of selected topographic features, namelyslope, elevation and landform. These watershed classes indicate the potential vulnerability of watersheds to waterresources degradation through soil erosion, with class 1 being the most vulnerable. General recommendations forsustainable land uses can be provided for each of these watershed classes

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.2.2

Soil erosion is a frequent result of land use changes and landscape degradation. It decreases both soil fertility andwater quality. Erosion is triggered by removing trees and other vegetation cover, and is accelerated by farming onsteep slopes, cultivating along the slope gradient instead of perpendicular to it, and the use of heavy machinery,among others. The key to erosion control is preventing the movement of soil particles and reducing the volume ofoverland flow. Possible interventions to reduce erosion and sedimentation comprise various vegetation managementand engineering measures, which can help to decrease both soil losses and the reduction of the water quality inwatersheds.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.2.6

Socio-Economy

The economy in the Lower Mekong Basin is overwhelmingly natural resource based, and the majority of thebasin’s population still depends directly upon agriculture, fisheries and the use of forests for their livelihoods. Withthe exception of the northern and north-eastern regions of Thailand, industrial development is still very limited.There are major differences between the levels of economic development in the four countries of the LowerMekong Basin. Thailand is by far the most developed country, and in recent years, Viet Nam has made a significantmove forward. Whilst considerable progress has been made, growth is somewhat slower in Cambodia and the LaoPDR.

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The four major macro-economic trends that seem likely to emerge in the coming decade include (a) increasingagricultural specialisation and commercialisation; (b) increasing non-resource based industrial developments; (c)increasing urbanisation; and (d) increasing sub-regional integration. These four trends will have major impacts onthe environment and the use of resources within the region, and will most likely increase the competition over theuse of natural resources, including water.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.3.2

Population density

The peoples of the Lower Mekong Basin are highly diverse. Theycomprise more than 70 different ethnic groups, who speak differentlanguages, have different histories, cultures and live under differentpolitical and economic systems. However, they also have a great dealin common, as most of the population in the region live in rural areas,and are subsistence farmers who supplement their daily needs with avariety of products collected from forests and wetlands.

The distribution of the 60 million people living in the Lower MekongBasin varies considerably. Cambodia and the Lao PDR togethercomprise only about one quarter of the basin’s population, althoughalmost each country’s entire population lives within the basin. Themost densely populated regions are the north-eastern region ofThailand and the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam. The present rapidpopulation growth is likely to continue in the medium-term,particularly in Cambodia and the Lao PDR. The projected annualgrowth rates of around 2 % for these two countries will result in abouta 50 % population increase within the next 20 years.

The household is the basic social and economic unit in rural areas in the region. The traditional household size islarge, and often includes several generations.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.3.1

Women play a central role in the provision, management and safeguarding of water and related resources. Thisimportant role of women has seldom been sufficiently reflected in past watershed management. The recognition ofthis role requires appropriate policies to address women’s specific needs and to equip and empower them toparticipate in watershed management activities at all levels, including decision-making and implementation.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.3.7

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Land is the primary means for farmers to generate a livelihood, make investments, accumulate wealth and transfer itbetween generations. The ways in which land and property rights are defined and land conflicts are resolved willalso have significant consequences for the management of natural resources in watersheds, because of the importantrole that land plays. To varying degrees, the countries of the Lower Mekong Basin still face problems of unclear orinsecure tenure over land and other natural resources, which is especially the case in rural areas. A lack of clarityregarding land tenure and differences between traditional rights and modern legislation often cause problems. Inorder to promote the sustainable management of natural resources, property rights need to be clearly defined andsecure for long enough so as to provide an investment incentive for local resource users.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.3.3

Besides secure tenure, there is a wide variety of other incentives for sustainable resource use. Incentives arefactors that motivate human behaviour and they are commonly classified into economic, regulatory,cooperation-based and information-based incentives. To change resource use patterns, it is necessary to change theincentive structures that underlie them. The design of appropriate incentives measures and their combined use needsto be situation-specific, based on a thorough analysis of existing conditions and incentive structures in a givenwatershed.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.3.4

Participation is a basic principle of watershed management and the degree to which stakeholders participate is oneof the most critical factors that determines its success or failure. Participation enables stakeholders to integrate theirinterests and concerns into planning and decision making processes. It can be a more passive process with arelatively low level of involvement, as in some top down models, or it can alternatively be more bottom-up orientedwith a much higher level of public involvement. Modern watershed management attempts to combine both thebottom up and the top down approaches through negotiation and dialogue.

For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.3.5

Conflicts over natural resources such as land, water and forests are ubiquitous and have always played a role inhuman society. Conflicts are a normal and common part of social and political life; they can be destructive orconstructive – depending on the way how people perceive and manage them. If properly analysed and addressedthrough a variety of mechanisms, conflicts can be a catalyst for change and can also assist in finding appropriatesolutions for problems. Consequently, watershed management actively addresses them as they arise out of theinterests of different stakeholders, as for example between upstream and downstream populations, or amongadministrative units at various levels. Conflict management is an important aspect of watershed management,because with increasing population pressure and increasing degradation of natural resources, conflicts are morelikely to occur in the future both within and between watersheds.

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For more information, please refer to Chapter 1.3.6

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Article Sources and Contributors100 Basics WSM Summary  Source: http://wiki.mekonginfo.org/index.php?oldid=3058  Contributors: Admin, Hoesle

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