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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fayetteville, Arkansas » Poultry Production and Product Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #178753
Title: MANAGING AQUATIC SYSTEMS AT THE WATERSHED SCALE

Author
item MATLOCK, MARTY - UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS
item MORGAN, ROBERT - UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS
item Haggard, Brian
item CHAUBEY, INDRAJEET - UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2004
Publication Date: 10/1/2004
Citation: Matlock, M.D., Morgan, R.A., Haggard, B.E., Chaubey, I. 2004. Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering: Managing aquatic systems at the watershed scale. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. 4 p.

Interpretive Summary: Growing populations in the United States are putting increased pressure on common natural resources that have been historically unmanaged. These common natural resources include goods and services provided by ecosystem structure and function. Watersheds are the minimum unit of ecosystem management, especially for aquatic systems. Three levels of management often exist within watersheds, including in-stream management, riparian zone management, and overall watershed management. This paper discusses these three levels of management within the concept of maintaining or enhancing ecological services provided by aquatic systems.

Technical Abstract: Growing populations in the United States are putting increased pressure on common natural resources that have been historically unmanaged. These common natural resources include goods and services provided by ecosystem structure and function. Watersheds are the minimum unit of ecosystem management, especially for aquatic systems. Three levels of management often exist within watersheds, including in-stream management, riparian zone management, and overall watershed management. The most common scale of management is in-stream, and the 1972 Clean Water Act provided the regulatory framework to manage aquatic systems through explicit watershed-based protection of water quality through implementation of water quality standards and through point-of-discharge control of pollution using discharge limits implemented through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit Program. The riparian zone, or corridor, is difficult to define, but it is generally considered to be the transition between aquatic and terrestrial environments along the stream corridor. Water quality at a point within a stream or river is indicative of the aggregate quality of the ecosystem (aquatic and terrestrial) in the watershed upstream from that point. Thus, watersheds represent the most logical basis for managing aquatic systems and maintaining or enhancing ecological services provided by aquatic systems. Successful watershed management must incorporate stakeholders representing all interests within the watershed; this process is difficult and the most promising method to protect water quality in the United States.