I. Douglas, Hydrological investigations of forest disturbance and land cover impacts in South-East Asia: a review, PHI T ROY B, 354(1391), 1999, pp. 1725-1738
Citations number
116
Categorie Soggetti
Multidisciplinary,"Experimental Biology
Journal title
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON SERIES B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Investigations of land management impacts on hydrology are well developed i
n South-East Asia, having been greatly extended by national organizations i
n the last two decades. Regional collaborative efforts, such as the ASEAN-U
S watershed programme, have helped develop skills and long-running monitori
ng programmes. Work in different countries is significant for particular as
pects: the powerful effects of both cyclones and landsliding in Taiwan, the
significance of lahars in Java, of small-scale agriculture in Thailand and
plantation establishment in Malaysia. Different aid programmes have contri
buted specialist knowledge such as British work on reservoir sedimentation,
Dutch, Swedish and British work on softwood plantations and US work in hil
l-tribe agriculture. Much has been achieved through individual university r
esearch projects, including PhD and MSc theses. The net result is that for
most countries there is now good information on changes in the rainfall-run
-off relationship due to forest disturbance or conversion, some information
on the impacts on sediment delivery and erosion of hillslopes, but relativ
ely little about the dynamics and magnitude of nutrient losses. Improvement
s have been made in the ability to model the consequences of forest convers
ion and of selective logging and exciting prospects exist for the developme
nt of better predictions of transfer of water from the hillslopes to the st
ream channels using techniques such as multilevel modelling. Understanding
of the processes involved has advanced through the detailed monitoring made
possible at permanent field stations such as that at Danum Valley, Sabah.