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Land Use, Environmental Stressors, and Water Resources: Degradation to Restoration
Citation:
Mayer, P., T. Newcomer-Johnson, AND S. Kaushal. Land Use, Environmental Stressors, and Water Resources: Degradation to Restoration. SSWR monthly webinar, Corvallis, OR, August 30, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
This tag team presentation is part of the monthly webinar series for SSWR. This webinar will be based partially on a recently published special issue in WATER entitled Land Use, Climate, and Water Resources (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/water/special_issues/Land-use-climate-water-resources#info). Land use and environmental stressors, such as drought and deteriorating water infrastructure, can accelerate the depletion of freshwater resources that support humans and ecosystem services. As global demand for water and environmental stressors increase, the quality and availability of freshwater will be impacted on local to global scales. Global water security must consider the interaction between land use, environmental stressors, and global water demand. Using representative studies from around the world, plus our own body of research in human-dominated ecosystems, we will discuss environmental stressors and management practices impacting global water quantity and quality. We describe a conceptual framework for understanding and predicting global patterns of water use and water quality degradation, characterized by the increasing interaction between land use and environmental stressors. Finally, we will discuss the role of ecosystem restoration and management in securing and improving water resources and related ecosystem services. This presentation contributes to SSWR 4.03A.
Description:
Land use and climate change can accelerate the depletion of freshwater resources that support humans and ecosystem services on a global scale. Here, we briefly review studies from around the world, including those in this special issue. We identify stages, which characterize increasing interaction between land use and climate change. During the first stage, hydrologic modifications and the built environment amplify overland flow via processes associated with runoff-dominated ecosystems (e.g., soil compaction, impervious surface cover, drainage, channelization). During the second stage, changes in water storage impact the capacity of ecosystems to buffer extremes in water quantity and quality (e.g., either losses in snowpack, wetlands, and groundwater recharge or gains in water and nutrient storage behind dams in reservoirs). During the third stage, extremes in water quantity and quality contribute to losses in ecosystem services and water security (e.g., clean drinking water, flood mitigation, habitat availability). During the final stage, management and restoration strategies attempt to regain lost ecosystem structure, function, and services but need to adapt to climate change. By anticipating the increasing interaction between land use and climate change, intervention points can be identified and management strategies can be adjusted to improve outcomes for realistic expectations. Overall, global water security cannot be adequately restored without considering an increasing interaction between land use and climate change across progressive stages and our ever-increasing human domination of the water cycle from degradation to ecosystem restoration.