Watershed Forest Management: New Tools for Water Resources Conservation

Sufficient clean water supply is a prerequisite for sustainable development. However, water shortage is the most worrying problem under modern development pressure. The watershed is the natural water resource unit, and scientific watershed management is needed to protect and improve water resources. A watershed is an integration of all kinds of biophysical and social economical factors. Its management requires systematic tools to assist decision making. This book presents tools developed with up-to-date geospatial technology to address several crucial aspects of watershed management. The Watershed Management Priority Indices (WMPI) is a zoning approach to prioritize critical areas for conservation and restoration. The Forest Road Evaluation System (FRES) is a module to evaluate roads and road-stream crossings in order to develop preventive management strategies. The Harvest Scheduling Review System (HSRS) is a module to estimate the cumulative hydrologic effect of timber harvesting on water yield and associated quality change. These tools will assist foresters, watershed management coordinators, and planners in managing the watershed in an environmentally healthy way.