Sustainable Water Management by Using Wetlands in Catchments with Intensive Land Use

Abstract

Wetlands play important roles in regional hydrology. In those catchments with intensive land use, they perform a key function in hydrological regulation and mass cycling. In recent decades, there have been many studies on the ecological values of natural wetlands and many protection measures have been proposed. The ecological functions of semi-natural wetlands are, however, often ignored. People have used these semi-natural wetlands for many centuries in the development of civilization and the most important is water use. In this chapter, the ecological functions of the multipond systems are taken as an example and the wise use of these semi-natural wetlands is discussed. In China, India and some other countries, there are many semi-natural wetlands that have been developed by man during a long era of civilization. Today, we can still learn much from the ancient management practices involved, as we face mounting problems of local and regional water management. Semi-natural wetlands occur in many landscapes and they can occupy a significantly large area. Examples of semi-natural wetlands are irrigation ponds, water gardens, reed beds and mulberry-coupled fishponds. Similar systems have also existed in central Europe for several centuries. Peasants in the Trebon Basin area of the Czech Republic created fishpond systems which have gradually been integrated into the landscape (Kvet et al. 2002). Management of fishponds has affected the surrounding primeval environment through dams, excavated hollows and artificial channels. In ancient times, semi-natural wetlands were usually closely related to food production, so that they were mostly distributed in the areas with extensive agricultural activities. At many places in China, for example, people still use them to produce rice, fish and other food products.