Effectiveness of water-harvesting earthworks in mountain protected areas

在高原山区正在扩大集水土方工程的建设，以增加农业、生态系统、城市和工业用淡水的供应。卫生设施的建设正在改变公共和私人土地的土地复盖特征，包括生态敏感地区。关于建造水利工程的水文影响以及项目是否会产生预期的结果，人们知之甚少。这项研究通过结合(1)实地调查、测绘、遥感和空间分析；(2)现场监测和实验，以及土壤和水文特征；以及(3)空间分布的水文模型的数据，评估了集水土方工程在淡水保护方面的有效性。该项目确定了集水土方工程在多大程度上是高原地区土地覆盖变化的主要驱动因素，项目实施对不同利益相关者群体的好处。本项目研究采用实证方法收集现有集水土方工程项目的空间和环境数据，以了解这些项目的生态和水文影响。该项目的具体目标是量化WHE项目的空间分布和设计，2)表征、经验模拟和评估受WHE影响的流域的降雨-径流和入渗动态，3)将数据综合为WHE管理者的研究结果。数据来自实地调查和对空间分布的遥感分析，以及现有的WHE项目的设计。建立了入渗-径流模型，以确定不同环境条件下不同类型白云的水文影响。调查结果被综合成数据和报告，供WHE管理人员使用。这项研究建立在农业坡地管理和水资源保护的地理研究基础上，并将对人-环境相互作用的理解扩展到一种重要的社会-生态系统类型。该项目由人类-环境和地理科学计划和既定的激励竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)联合资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Construction of water-harvesting earthworks (WHE) is expanding in highland mountain areas to increase the supply of freshwater available for agriculture, ecosystems, urban and industrial use. The construction of WHEs is transforming land cover characteristics in public and private lands including in ecologically sensitive areas. Relatively little is known about the hydrological effects of WHE construction and whether projects result in desired outcomes. This research assesses the effectiveness of water harvesting earthworks in the context of freshwater conservation by combining data from (1) field surveys, mapping, remote sensing, and spatial analysis; (2) field site monitoring and experiments, and soil and hydrologic characterization; and (3) spatially distributed hydrologic modeling. The project identifies to what degree water-harvesting earthworks are a major drive of land cover change in highland regions the benefits of project implementation for different stakeholder groups.This project research employs an empirical approach to gather spatial and environmental data on existing water-harvesting earthworks projects to understand the ecological and hydrological impacts of these projects. The specific goals of this project are to quantify the spatial distributions and design of WHE projects, 2) characterize, empirically model, & assess precipitation-runoff & infiltration dynamics of WHE impacted catchments, 3) and synthesize data into research findings for WHE managers. Data are developed from field surveys and remote sensing analyses of the spatial distributions and design of existing WHE projects. Infiltration-runoff models are developed to determine hydrological impacts of different types of WHE in diverse environmental conditions. Findings are synthesized into data and reports designed for WHE managers. The research builds upon geographical research in agricultural slope management and water conservation and extends the understanding of human-environment interactions into an important type of social-ecological system.This project is jointly funded by the Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.