Collaborative Research: Planning And Land Management in Tropical Ecosystem: Complexities of land-use and hydrology coupling in the Panama Canal Watershed

巴拿马运河的可持续性与土地使用密切相关。 运河是通过在查格雷斯河筑坝而形成的，形成了加通湖。 每艘通过运河的船只都需要从加通湖放水，因此运河的可靠运行需要来自巴拿马运河流域的可靠径流。 在长时间的旱季，降雨基本停止时，情况尤其如此。 此外，雨季的洪水可能导致运河关闭。 巴拿马运河正在进行大规模扩建，以允许大型船只通过。运河运营是美国的重要利益。 美国和亚洲之间大约20%的贸易通过巴拿马运河，占全球贸易的5%，运河为美国创造了大量就业机会。 然而，尽管有了新的高效船闸，运河扩建仍将需要更多的水。 巴拿马运河流域的土地管理影响着流入加通湖和运河的水量和时间。 该项目将通过土地所有者的反应，绘制巴拿马运河管理局等当局的土地使用政策激励措施的流向，以反映土地使用和覆盖的变化，以及流入运河的影响。 这将有助于预测人类和水文对政策的反应，并确定提供水文生态系统服务的最低成本方法。该项目包括在巴拿马进行的国际部分，部分资金来自NSF ISE基金。该项目将评估巴拿马运河地区的水文，作为对巴拿马运河管理局等当局的土地使用政策激励措施的回应，通过土地所有者的反应，对土地使用和覆盖的变化，对流入运河的影响。 初步结果表明，土地管理决定改变了水从土地流入运河的路径。 这些"优先流动路径"是由旱季土壤开裂和植物、动物和微生物等生物因素造成的。 将牧场改为森林似乎增加了流经土壤的水量。 这可能会增加地下水的补给，这是旱季河流流量的重要来源。 森林土地覆盖可以减少雨季的洪水。 该项目将收集不同土地利用和覆盖的流域水文数据，并分析这些数据，以量化森林砍伐和放牧对水文行为的作用。 研究人员将衡量影响参与现有土地使用奖励制度的因素，以实施可能改善运河水流状况的土地管理制度。 物理和社会经济研究的结果将被合并到一个水文社会经济模型中，以预测巴拿马运河流域未来的水资源可用性，由不同的土地管理和气候情景驱动。

The sustainability of the Panama Canal is intricately connected with land-use. The Canal was created by damming the Chagres River, creating Lake Gatun. Each ship passing through the Canal requires release of water from Lake Gatun, so reliable operation of the Canal requires reliable runoff from the Panama Canal watershed. This is particularly true during the extended dry season, when rainfall essentially stops. Furthermore, floods during the wet season can cause closure of the Canal. The Panama Canal is undergoing a significant expansion to allow passage by larger ships. Canal operations are a vital US interest. Approximately 20 percent of trade between the U.S. and Asia passes through the Panama Canal representing five percent of global trade, and the Canal enables a large number of US jobs. However, the Canal expansion will require more water despite the new high efficiency locks. Land management in the Panama Canal Watershed influences how much and when water drains into Lake Gatun and the Canal. This project will map the flow of land use policy incentives from authorities like Panama Canal Authority, through landholder response, to changes in land use and cover, to the effects of flow into the Canal. This will help predict human and hydrological responses to policy and identify the least cost approach to providing hydrologic ecosystem services. This project includes international components conducted in the country of Panama and is funded in part with funds from NSF ISE funds. This project will evaluate the hydrology of the Panama Canal region as a response to land use policy incentives from authorities like Panama Canal Authority, through landholder response, to changes in land use and cover, to the effects of flow into the Canal. Preliminary results suggest that land management decisions alter paths available for water to flow from the land into the Canal. These "preferential flow paths" are created by soil cracking in the dry season, and by biological factors such as plants, animals, and microbes. Conversion of grazing lands to forest seems to increase the amount of water flowing through the soil. This may increase groundwater recharge, an important source of dry season river flows. Forest land cover may reduce flooding in the wet season. The project will collect watershed-scale hydrologic data in different land uses and covers, and analyze those data to quantify the roles of deforestation and grazing on hydrologic behavior. Researchers will measure the factors affecting participation in an existing land-use incentive system to implement land management systems that may improve the flow regime to the Canal. The findings from the physical and socio-economic studies will be merged into a hydro-socio-economic model to predict future water resources availability in the Panama Canal watershed, driven by different land-management and climate scenarios.