Sustainable Basin Research Articles

Large-scale Degradation of the Tocantins-Araguaia River Basin.

The Tocantins-Araguaia Basin is one of the largest river systems in South America, located entirely within Brazilian territory. In the last decades, capital-concentrating activities such as agribusiness, mining, and hydropower promoted extensive changes in land cover, hydrology, and environmental conditions. These changes are jeopardizing the basin's biodiversity and ecosystem services. Threats are escalating as poor environmental policies continue to be formulated, such as environmentally unsustainable hydropower plants, large-scale agriculture for commodity production, and aquaculture with non-native fish. If the current model persists, it will deepen the environmental crisis in the basin, compromising broad conservation goals and social development in the long term. Better policies will require thought and planning to minimize growing threats and ensure the basin's sustainability for future generations.

Evaluation of a sustainable land use planning model in the Elmalı basin.

Whereas most studies addressing soil erosion have focused on determining the spatial distribution and extent of the problem, efforts to solve problems of erosion have remained limited. In response, a model for sustainable land use planning (SLUP) was used to improve the sustainable management of watersheds by preventing soil loss according to land use. The model was applied to a small-scale rural basin with forest, pasture and farmland at risk of soil erosion by integrating geographic information systems (GIS) and the universal soil loss equation (USLE) model. Initial mean soil loss in the basin was 4.9tha-1 yearly, most of which had occurred in the farmland. Although contour farming and strip cropping had reduced soil loss in the farmland by 19.5% and 59.4%, respectively, such methods failed to maintain the basin's sustainability. However, with the model, soil loss decreased to 0.08tha-1 yearly. Thus, for the basin's sustainable management, the land use planned there should be 88% forest, 10% pasture and 2% water surface. The results showed that the model for sustainable management can be used as a convenient tool for watershed management.