Catchment Science Research Articles

Trusting Emergence: Some Experiences of Learning about Integrated Catchment Science with the Environment Agency of England and Wales

The changing context of managing water in the European Union poses a fundamental and largely unaddressed question: are current scientific practices and scientific explanations able to meet the demands of doing effective integrated catchment management? This paper presents findings from 2 years of co-researching with scientists responsible for developing the Integrated Catchment Science Strategy within the Environment Agency, the main environmental regulatory body for England and Wales. The use of a co-researching approach using systems thinking and practice to enable social learning created, where none existed, a common conceptual framing of purpose and an incipient community of practice (CoP). Three key insights emerge: (1) integration of catchment sciences is possible at the level of policy objectives; (2) a shift in language and practice is required towards Integrated Catchment Managing to describe and enact the sets of purposeful activities and interactions among multiple stakeholders; (3) institutional and organizational constraints exist which limit the potential of CoPs to act in more innovative ways and develop more integrated and adaptive science-policy. Our findings confirm the need to develop learning processes which pay attention to the context, stakeholders, the key changes that are required in particular catchments and, most important of all, the epistemological perspective(s) of those involved in managing catchments.

Conceptualising Scale in Regional Studies and Catchment Science – Towards an Integrated Characterisation of Spatial Units

AbstractThis article examines conceptualisations of scale in catchment science and regional studies as the basis for the development of an integrated characterisation of spatial units. Our starting point is the apparent similarity in the scalar terminology utilised in the two fields, pointing to an area of potential conceptual overlap between physical and human geography. While our aim is not to produce an overarching theory of scale, we seek to advance understanding within both catchment science and regional studies by comparing their approaches to the analysis and understanding of spatial units. We also describe underlying principles of heterogeneity and complexity in the functioning and behaviour of catchments and regions. After clarifying scale definitions, this article examines notions of ‘scaling’ and ‘rescaling’ in each field and assesses catchments and regions as complex and open systems. In the penultimate section of this article, we develop an analytical framework based on the identification of certain dynamic attributes and concepts of integration, drawing upon the meta‐theoretical language of complexity science.

Comments on 'connectivity between landscapes and riverscapes–a unifying theme in integrating hydrology and ecology in catchment science?' by D Tetzlaff, C Soulsby, PJ Bacon, AF Youngson, C Gibbins, and IA Malcolm

Comments on 'connectivity between landscapes and riverscapes–a unifying theme in integrating hydrology and ecology in catchment science?' by D Tetzlaff, C Soulsby, PJ Bacon, AF Youngson, C Gibbins, and IA Malcolm

Connectivity between landscapes and riverscapes—a unifying theme in integrating hydrology and ecology in catchment science?

Connectivity between landscapes and riverscapes—a unifying theme in integrating hydrology and ecology in catchment science?

Applying the scientific method to small catchment studies: a review of the Panola Mountain experience

AbstractA hallmark of the scientific method is its iterative application to a problem to increase and refine the understanding of the underlying processes controlling it. A successful iterative application of the scientific method to catchment science (including the fields of hillslope hydrology and biogeochemistry) has been hindered by two factors. First, the scale at which controlled experiments can be performed is much smaller than the scale of the phenomenon of interest. Second, computer simulation models generally have not been used as hypothesis‐testing tools as rigorously as they might have been. Model evaluation often has gone only so far as evaluation of goodness of fit, rather than a full structural analysis, which is more useful when treating the model as a hypothesis. An iterative application of a simple mixing model to the Panola Mountain Research Watershed is reviewed to illustrate the increase in understanding gained by this approach and to discern general principles that may be applicable to other studies. The lessons learned include the need for an explicitly stated conceptual model of the catchment, the definition of objective measures of its applicability, and a clear linkage between the scale of observations and the scale of predictions. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.