Effectiveness of water-harvesting earthworks in mountain protected areas

Construction of water-harvesting earthworks (WHE) is expanding in highland mountain areas to increase the supply of freshwater available for agriculture, ecosystems, urban and industrial use. The construction of WHEs is transforming land cover characteristics in public and private lands including in ecologically sensitive areas. Relatively little is known about the hydrological effects of WHE construction and whether projects result in desired outcomes.

This research assesses the effectiveness of water harvesting earthworks in the context of freshwater conservation by combining data from (1) field surveys, mapping, remote sensing, and spatial analysis; (2) field site monitoring and experiments, and soil and hydrologic characterization; and (3) spatially distributed hydrologic modeling. The project identifies to what degree water-harvesting earthworks are a major drive of land cover change in highland regions the benefits of project implementation for different stakeholder groups.

This project research employs an empirical approach to gather spatial and environmental data on existing water-harvesting earthworks projects to understand the ecological and hydrological impacts of these projects. The specific goals of this project are to quantify the spatial distributions and design of WHE projects, 2) characterize, empirically model, & assess precipitation-runoff & infiltration dynamics of WHE impacted catchments, 3) and synthesize data into research findings for WHE managers.

Data are developed from field surveys and remote sensing analyses of the spatial distributions and design of existing WHE projects. Infiltration-runoff models are developed to determine hydrological impacts of different types of WHE in diverse environmental conditions. Findings are synthesized into data and reports designed for WHE managers.

The research builds upon geographical research in agricultural slope management and water conservation and extends the understanding of human-environment interactions into an important type of social-ecological system.

This project is jointly funded by the Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.