Abstract
Forested catchments throughout the world are known for producing high quality water for human use. In the 20th Century, experimental forest catchment studies played a key role in studying the processes contributing to high water quality. The hydrologic processes investigated on these paired catchments have provided the science base for examining water quality responses to natural disturbances such as wildfire, insect outbreaks, and extreme hydrologic events, and human-induced disturbances such as timber harvesting, site preparation, prescribed fires, fertilizer applications, pesticide usage, rainfall acidification, and mining. This paper compares and contrasts the paired catchment approach with landscape-level water resource monitoring to highlight the information on hydrologic processes provided by the paired catchment approach that is not provided by the broad-brush landscape monitoring.
Highlights
The most sustainable and best quality freshwater sources in the world originate in forested watersheds [1,2,3,4,5]
This paper provides a historical perspective of the many accomplishments of water quantity and quality research over the past century, made possible by using the paired catchment methodology
The information obtained from monitoring helps with state and national prioritizing of water quantity and quality the issues to be addressed by state and Federal programs, and for selecting the geographic areas in which to focus water research and restoration efforts
Summary
The most sustainable and best quality freshwater sources in the world originate in forested watersheds [1,2,3,4,5]. Landscape-level hydrologic monitoring is being carried out by a number of agencies throughout the world These include the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) in the United States, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia, Environment Canada in Canada, municipal and state water authorities in Germany, Federal. This paper provides a historical perspective of the many accomplishments of water quantity and quality research over the past century, made possible by using the paired catchment methodology It examines the paired catchment approach versus landscape level monitoring to describe what each approach provides in terms of hydrological science and what type of information is needed for watershed management in the 21st Century
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