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有着错综复杂的联系。运河是在查格雷斯河上筑坝而成的，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可靠的巴拿马运河流域径流。在长时间的旱季尤其如此，此时降雨基本上停止了。此外，雨季的洪水可能导致运河关闭。巴拿马运河正在进行重大扩建，以允许更大的船只通过。运河运营是美国的重要利益所在。美国和亚洲之间约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，运河扩建将需要更多的水，尽管新的高效船闸。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。该项目将绘制土地利用政策奖励的流向图，从巴拿马运河管理局等当局，通过土地所有者的反应，到土地利用和覆盖的变化，再到流入运河的影响。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成本最低的方法。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。这个项目将评价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反应，通过土地所有者的反应，对土地使用和覆盖的变化，对流入运河的水的影响。初步结果表明，土地管理决策改变了水从土地流入运河的路径。这些“优先流动路径”是由旱季土壤开裂以及植物、动物和微生物等生物因素造成的。把牧场变成森林似乎增加了流经土壤的水量。这可能会增加地下水补给，这是旱季河流流量的重要来源。森林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尺度水文数据，并对这些数据进行分析，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流量制度的土地管理制度。物理和社会经济研究的结果将合并到一个水文社会经济模型中，以预测在不同土地管理和气候情景的驱动下，巴拿马运河流域未来的水资源可用性。

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.