Sustainable Management of Tropical Catchments

The contents of this book are the syntheses of studies of tropical catchments carried out in three continents Central/South America, Africa and Asia in the 1990s, mostly through the support of the EU Science and Technology for Development programme. Each chapter reflects on a particular aspect of the seemingly intractable problem: achieving and understanding tropical rural development without compromising longer–term sustainability of the soil and water systems which underpin it. The studies encompass examples of erosion measurement; of scaling measurements from plots to estimates for catchments; of erosion control and conservation techniques at soil and ecosystem levels; of the limits to uses of fragile tropical soils; of the effects of runoff combined with regulation on rivers and reservoirs; of the importance of indigenous people in the development processes and of the value and limitations of modelling at scales from soils to catchment. There is no single message from the book because there is no single solution to the problems of achieving sustainable tropical development. The Sustainable Management of Tropical Catchments presents ideas, techniques and case studies, knowledge of which will help researchers in many scientific and social disciplines to understand the complexities better, and politicians and bureaucrats to understand the consequences of development decisions and learn from the failure of many earlier ones.

Spis treści:
INTRODUCTION
Sustainability in the Context of Tropical Catchments
SOILS, EROSION AND LAND USE
Introduction
From Plot to Basins: The Scale Problem in Studies of Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield
Remote Sensing and GIS Studies of Erosion Potential for Catchment Management: A Densely Populated Agricultural Catchment in Kenya
Socio–economic Aspects of Subsistence Farming and Soil Erosion in Tropical Catchment Management: The Upper Tana, Kenya
Agroecological Practices as Tools f or the Sustainable Management of Catchments Susceptible to Erosion: Reunion Island
The Importance of Geopedology in Sustainable Use of Tropical Catchments: Sodic Soils and Land Use Scenarios in Northern Amazonia
Soil Restoration and Conservation: The "Tepetates" –
Indurated Volcanic Soils – in Mexico
Environmental Management for Sustainable Selective Logging in Tropical Rainforests
Environmental Limits to Sustainable Coffee Cultivation on Tropical Soils: The Sungai, Pemadang Catchment, Brunei
CATCHMENT CONSERVATION AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Conservation of Tropical Peat Swamp Forests: A Peatland Catchment in Central Kalimantan
Catchment Sustainability and River Biodiversity in Asia: A Case Study from Nepal
Conservation of Inland Deltas: A Case Study of the Gash Delta, Sudan
The Importance of People in the Management of Tropical Catchments
Hydrological and Ecological Considerations in the Management of a Catchment Controlled by a Reservoir Cascade: The Tana River, Kenya
Information for the Sustainable Management of Shallow Lakes: Lake Naivasha, Kenya
MODELLING: AN ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT
Introduction
The Importance of Soil Infiltration Dynamics and Data Uncertainty: Field Studies on Soils in Zimbabwe
Distributed Numerical Modelling of Surface Runoff and Soil Erosion in Arid Catchments
Hydrological Modelling in Humid Tropical Catchments
Modelling Lake Level Changes: Examples from the Easter Rift Valley, Kenya
The Influence of Tropical Catchments upon the Coastal Zone: Modelling the Links between Groundwater and Mangrove Losses in Keyna, India/Bangladesh and Florida

Okładka tylna:
The contents of this book are the syntheses of studies of tropical catchments carried out in three continents Central/South America, Africa and Asia in the 1990s, mostly through the support of the EU Science and Technology for Development prog ramme. Each chapter reflects on a particular aspect of the seemingly intractable problem: achieving and understanding tropical rural development without compromising longer–term sustainability of the soil and water systems which underpin it. The studies encompass examples of erosion measurement; of scaling measurements from plots to estimates for catchments; of erosion control and conservation techniques at soil and ecosystem levels; of the limits to uses of fragile tropical soils; of the effects of runoff combined with regulation on rivers and reservoirs; of the importance of indigenous people in the development processes and of the value and limitations of modelling at scales from soils to catchment. There is no single message from the book because there is no single solution to the problems of achieving sustainable tropical development. The Sustainable Management of Tropical Catchments presents ideas, techniques and case studies, knowledge of which will help researchers in many scientific and social disciplines to understand the complexities better, and politicians and bureaucrats to understand the consequences of development decisions and learn from the failure of many earlier ones.