Effectiveness of water-harvesting earthworks in mountain protected areas

高地山区正在扩大集水土方工程的建设，以增加可供农业、生态系统、城市和工业使用的淡水供应。WHEs的建设正在改变包括生态敏感区在内的公共和私人土地的土地覆盖特征。相对而言，人们对水环境工程的水文影响以及项目是否能产生预期的结果知之甚少。本研究通过结合以下数据来评估集水土方工程在淡水保护背景下的有效性：(1)实地调查、制图、遥感和空间分析；(2)现场监测与试验，土壤水文表征；(3)空间分布水文模拟。该项目确定了集水土方工程在多大程度上是高地地区土地覆盖变化的主要驱动因素，以及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。本项目的具体目标是量化水暖项目的空间分布和设计；2)表征、实证建模和评估水暖影响流域的降水-径流和入渗动态；3)将数据综合为水暖管理者的研究成果。数据来自实地调查和遥感分析的空间分布和现有妇幼保健项目的设计。为了确定不同环境条件下不同类型的WHE的水文影响，建立了入渗-径流模型。研究结果被综合成数据和报告，为女性健康管理人员设计。该研究建立在农业边坡管理和水土保持的地理研究基础上，将对人与环境相互作用的理解扩展到一个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促进竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.