Hydrologic Effects of a Changing Forest Landscape

Hydrologic Effects of a Changing Forest Landscape
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2008-12-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309121086

Of all the outputs of forests, water may be the most important. Streamflow from forests provides two-thirds of the nation's clean water supply. Removing forest cover accelerates the rate that precipitation becomes streamflow; therefore, in some areas, cutting trees causes a temporary increase in the volume of water flowing downstream. This effect has spurred political pressure to cut trees to increase water supply, especially in western states where population is rising. However, cutting trees for water gains is not sustainable: increases in flow rate and volume are typically short-lived, and the practice can ultimately degrade water quality and increase vulnerability to flooding. Forest hydrology, the study of how water flows through forests, can help illuminate the connections between forests and water, but it must advance if it is to deal with today's complexities, including climate change, wildfires, and changing patterns of development and ownership. This book identifies actions that scientists, forest and water managers, and citizens can take to help sustain water resources from forests.

Hydrologic Effects from Urbanization of Forested Watersheds in the Northeast

Hydrologic Effects from Urbanization of Forested Watersheds in the Northeast
Author: Howard William Lull
Publisher:
Total Pages: 38
Release: 1969
Genre: Forests and forestry
ISBN:

Urbanization of forest areas tends to reduce interception, reduce infiltration and increase overland flow, reduce soil-moisture storage, reduce evapotranspiration, increase runoff, increase peak flows, and reduce water quality. annual maximum peak flows, annual hydrologic responses, and annual runoff were found (from actural streamflow records) to increase with progressive urbanization. the percentage of summer rainfall that appeared as runoff and the hydrologic responses were greater for partially urbanized watersheds than for mostly forested ones.

Forest Hydrology

Forest Hydrology
Author: Devendra Amatya
Publisher: CABI
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2016-09-14
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1780646607

Forests cover approximately 26% of the world's land surface area and represent a distinct biotic community. They interact with water and soil in a variety of ways, providing canopy surfaces which trap precipitation and allow evaporation back into the atmosphere, thus regulating how much water reaches the forest floor as through fall, as well as pull water from the soil for transpiration. The discipline "forest hydrology" has been developed throughout the 20th century. During that time human intervention in natural landscapes has increased, and land use and management practices have intensified. The book will be useful for graduate students, professionals, land managers, practitioners, and researchers with a good understanding of the basic principles of hydrology and hydrologic processes.

Forest Hydrology and Biogeochemistry

Forest Hydrology and Biogeochemistry
Author: Delphis F. Levia
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 734
Release: 2011-06-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400713630

This international rigorously peer-reviewed volume critically synthesizes current knowledge in forest hydrology and biogeochemistry. It is a one-stop comprehensive reference tool for researchers and practitioners in the fields of hydrology, biogeoscience, ecology, forestry, boundary-layer meteorology, and geography. Following an introductory chapter tracing the historical roots of the subject, the book is divided into the following main sections: · Sampling and Novel Approaches · Forest Hydrology and Biogeochemistry by Ecoregion and Forest Type · Hydrologic and Biogeochemical Fluxes from the Canopy to the Phreatic Surface · Hydrologic and Biogeochemical Fluxes in Forest Ecosystems: Effects of Time, Stressors, and Humans The volume concludes with a final chapter that reflects on the current state of knowledge and identifies some areas in need of further research.

Forest Hydrology

Forest Hydrology
Author: Mingteh Chang
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2002-07-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780849313639

This book fills a gap in the current literature by bringing water resources and the forest-water relation into a single volume. The text broadly discusses common issues on water resource and forest-water relation and serves as an introduction to forest hydrology. Forest Hydrology: An Introduction to Water and Forests covers issues on water, forests, the water-forest relation, watershed research, and hydrologic measurements, and provides state-of-the-art knowledge on the impact of forests to the hydrologic environment. It emphasizes concepts and general principles within these two natural resources, and details the processes of hydrologic components in forested areas. The extensive review of forest impacts on the hydrologic cycle and stream environment contained here provides state-of-the-science information for land and water resource managers, administrators, planners, practitioners, and concerned citizens. The text supplies students, researchers, and hydrology professionals with sufficient background to study forest hydrology, conduct watershed research, and make hydrologic observations without previous exposure to the subject. With its comprehensive coverage and an extensive bibliography, Forest Hydrology provides you with the necessary knowledge and foundation for managing water resources in forested areas under a variety of environmental conditions.

Forest Hydrology and Watershed

Forest Hydrology and Watershed
Author: Fan-Rui Meng
Publisher: MDPI
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2019-08-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3039213857

Hydrological processes in forested watersheds are influenced by environmental, physiological, and biometric factors such as precipitation, radiation, temperature, species type, leaf area, and extent and structure of forest ecosystems. Over the past two centuries, forest coverage and forest structures have been impacted globally by anthropogenic activities, for example, forest harvesting, and conversion of forested landscapes for plantations and urbanization. In addition, since the industrial revolution, climate change has resulted in profound impacts on forest ecosystems due to higher carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration or CO2 fertilization, warmer temperatures, changes in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and natural disturbances. As a result, hydrological processes in forested watersheds have been altered by these natural and anthropogenic factors and these changes are expected to accelerate due to future changing climatic conditions. Hence, understanding how various environmental, physiological, and physical drivers interactively influence hydrological and biogeochemical processes in forest ecosystems is critical for sustainable water supply in forested watersheds. About 21% of the global population depends on water sources that originate in forested catchments where forest coverage larger than 30%. Furthermore, there are knowledge gaps in our understanding of the mechanism of hydrological and hydrochemical cycles in forested watersheds. This Special Issue addresses these gaps in our knowledge and includes twelve papers in the following three major research themes in forest watershed areas.

Hydrologic Effects from Urbanization of Forested Watersheds in the Northeast

Hydrologic Effects from Urbanization of Forested Watersheds in the Northeast
Author: Northeastern Forest Experiment Station (U.S.)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 31
Release: 1969
Genre:
ISBN:

S2Urbanization, particularly in the crowded Northeast, has created a new environment. Asphalt and concrete have replaced hundreds of square miles of soil, buildings have replaced trees on much of the land, and sewers have replaced streambeds in many areas. As a result, the hydrology of this land is changing rapidly. To determine the effects of this expanding urbanization on forested watersheds, the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station has studied streamflow records of forested and urbanized watersheds. This paper is a report of that study. We consider first the urban and forest environments in relation to their differing effects on several hydrologic processes and on water quality. Second, we estimate the effects of urbanization on evapotranspiration and runoff by theoretically imposing urban conditions on a forested watershed for which climatic and streamflow records are available. Third, we describe the effects of actual progressive urbanization on peak flows, stormflows, and annual runoff of three Northeastern watersheds; and we compare peak flows, percentage of runoff, high- and low-flow intervals, and hydrologic responses between four partially urbanized and nine mostly forested watersheds. S3.

Forests & Water Guidelines

Forests & Water Guidelines
Author: Great Britain. Forestry Commission
Publisher:
Total Pages: 40
Release: 1993
Genre: Acid rain
ISBN:

This work advises owners and managers how woodlands and forests influence the freshwater ecosystem, and gives guidance on how operations should be carried out in order to protect and enhance the water environment. The guidelines apply equally to forest enterprises and the private sector.

Quantifying Impacts of Global Change on Hydrology and Sediment

Quantifying Impacts of Global Change on Hydrology and Sediment
Author: Travis A. Dahl
Publisher:
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2019
Genre: Electronic dissertations
ISBN: 9781392586075

The hydrologic cycle evolves over time, with landscape changes driving differences in evapotranspiration, runoff, and groundwater recharge while climate change affects the timing and magnitude of precipitation as well as temperature. These changes also affect how sediment moves across the landscape and through watersheds. In this dissertation, I examine how land use changes and climate change both affect the movement of water and sediment through watersheds in the Great Lakes Basin.Extreme cases of land use change, such as the logging and forest fires that affected large swaths of the Great Lakes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, can greatly increase both streamflow and sediment transport. Chapter 1 utilizes the process-based Landscape Hydrologic Model (LHM) to examine the hydrologic effects of land use change from the forested pre-settlement condition to clearcut, burned, and modern land uses in the northwestern corner of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. I show that extensive fires could have increased streamflow by 160% relative to the virgin forest landscape and 96% relative to the logged scenario. Chapter 2 focuses on modeling of the Jordan River watershed, showing that logging may have increased sediment transport in the river by up to 34% compared to pre-settlement conditions and a watershed-wide fire could have increased the sediment transport capacity by as much as 166% above the pre-settlement levels. A reach-based sediment budgeting tool, the Sediment Impact Assessment Methods (SIAM), highlights the possibility of complex system responses to land use change over time.Chapter 3 explores the potential impacts of climate change on sediment yield and dredging costs in the adjacent Maumee and St. Joseph River watersheds where I project that dredging costs may change in opposite directions (−8 to −16% in the St. Joseph but +1 to +6% in the Maumee). This difference between the two watersheds is driven by differences in the proportion of farmland and assumptions about how farmers will respond to a changing climate. I also show that there is a large variation in sediment yield and sediment discharge predictions because of the differences among the various Global Climate Model (GCM) projections.Rather than downscale and run all of the GCM projections, many researchers average a subset of the projections together and use the ensembled climate data as the input to hydrologic models. In Chapter 4, I compare different climate change scenario ensembling methodologies to determine if they produce the same results. I show that a climate ensemble produces significantly (p