Current Status and Trend of Forest Hydrological Services Market Research

Of the many services that forests provide, hydrological services are among the most valuable, and it becomes more scarce with the growing demands by human beings. As a kind of incentive measure for protecting forest, forest hydrological services markets have been developed in many countries around the world and some valuable experiences have been achieved. The paper reviews the experiments carried out in the world and their research findings on forest hydrological services market, and presents the issues to be studied for the establishment of future water services market.

Modelling the role of ground-true riparian vegetation for providing regulating services in a Mediterranean watershed

Intensive agricultural and industrial activities are often considered major sources of water contamina-tion.Currently,riparian vegetation(RV)is increasingly being promoted as a solution to balance the potentially adverse effects that agriculture may have on water quality.Nonetheless,existing RV is often overlook in recent modelling efforts,failing to capture the current amount of ecosystem services provide.Here,we used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool ecohydrological model to simulate the influence of ground-true RV on i)nutrient(nitrate and total phosphorus)and sediment exports from agricultural areas and ii)its effect for in-stream concentrations.These results are further compared against a set of hypothetical scenarios of different RV widths and different land-uses.Our results point to a great rele-vance of existing RV in controlling in-stream concentration of sediments and nutrients where pressure from agriculture is highest,preventing them to surpass limits set in the EU Water Framework Directive.On the other hand,in areas with industry discharges,the role of RV is limited and model results suggest that restoring RV would have limited impacts.We illustrate how existing RV may already provide strong but not acknowledged water quality regulation services,how these services can differ substantially between nearby streams,and that effective strategies to improve water quality using RV must acknowledge existing patterns of vegetation,land use and contamination sources.

Hydrologic Monitoring Plan of the Brazilian Water Producer/PCJ Project

Both Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) and Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) have a wide range of strategies that include different economic instruments for nature conservation. Although the generation and maintenance of payment for hydrologic ecosystem services (Water-PES) is expanding in Brazil, there are difficulties in the implementation of projects. Due to the complexity and non-linearity of the hydrological processes, also affecting both EbA and Water-PES goals, monitoring quali-quantitative aspects of streams have been here addressed as a useful management tool. This study presents the Hydrological Monitoring Plan (HMP) of the Water Producer/PCJ project, operating between 2009-2014, in order to: 1) evaluate the impact of project actions under water quali-quantitative aspects;and 2) promote the incorporation of HMP’s elements in water resources management. HMP of the Water Producer/PCJ project has been implemented following the conditions for efficiency (baseline, long-term scale compatible with the actions of the project, in the experimental and reference watersheds). In addition, HMP is being implemented from upstream to downstream in catchments with areas ranging from 17 to 130 km2. This proposal favors the quantification and valuation of hydrologic services that could be assessed by ecohydrologic monitoring and modeling. Thus, we look forward to the consolidation of the Brazilian information system of water resources, the reduction of modeling uncertainties and integrated assessment of the consequences of land-use/land-cover change that strongly impact goals of EbA and Water-PES initiatives.

Water quality impacts of small-scale hydromodification in an urban stream in Connecticut, USA

Introduction:Construction activities in and along urban streams increase the sediment input into surface waters,causing an overall decline in water quality and aquatic ecosystems.In this case study,we investigate the water quality impacts of local hydromodification in an urban stream(discharge 0.4 m^(3)/s).At the site of interest,workers removed a stream crossing consisting of an embankment with culverts and replaced it with a small bridge(single span of 25 m)in an effort to improve flow capacity.Methods:Water samples were taken at four sites along the North Branch Park River in Connecticut,Northeastern United States.Turbidity and dissolved oxygen(DO)were measured in situ,and nitrate and total phosphorus(TP)were measured in the laboratory.Benthic macroinvertebrate samples were also collected and analyzed for taxon richness and Shannon-Weaver species diversity.Data were compared between upstream and downstream sites and before,during,and after hydromodification.We used one-way ANOVA combined with the post hoc Turkey test to derive statistical significance.Results:During construction,turbidity increased temporarily by 60.9%[from 2.48 Nephelometric Turbidity Units(NTU)over ambient to 4.00 NTU].Once construction was completed,DO increased locally from 11.0 to 13.0 mg/L.Benthic macroinvertebrate taxon richness and species diversity declined by 61.6 and 32.6%respectively,with no recovery observed in the year following construction.Water quality was only affected within 50 m downstream.Nitrate and TP concentrations were unaffected.Conclusions:Small-scale hydromodification temporarily increased the turbidity as a result of increased sediment input,approaching the maximum level for clean water(5 NTU).Benthic macroinvertebrate communities declined in the immediate downstream vicinity of construction but are expected to recover soon given that turbidity recovered to pre-construction levels,and DO increased.These outcomes emphasize that environmental assessment is important not only for large-scale hydromodification but also for smaller scale stream modifications.