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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2012, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (07): 1883-1890.

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New paradigm for soil and water conservation: A method based on watershed process modeling and scenario analysis.

ZHU A-xing1,2, CHEN La-jiao1,3, QIN Cheng-zhi1, WANG Ping1, LIU Jun-zhi1,3, LI Run-kui3, CAI Qiang-guo1   

  1. (1State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; 2Department of Geography, University of WisconsinMadison, Madison, WI 53706, USA; 3Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China).
  • Online:2012-07-18 Published:2012-07-18

Abstract: With the increase of severe soil erosion problem, soil and water conservation has become an urgent concern for sustainable development. Small watershed experimental observation is the traditional paradigm for soil and water control. However, the establishment of experimental watershed usually takes long time, and has the limitations of poor repeatability and high cost. Moreover, the popularization of the results from the experimental watershed is limited for other areas due to the differences in watershed conditions. Therefore, it is not sufficient to completely rely on this old paradigm for soil and water loss control. Recently, scenario analysis based on watershed modeling has been introduced into watershed management, which can provide information about the effectiveness of different management practices based on the quantitative simulation of watershed processes. Because of its merits such as low cost, short period, and high repeatability, scenario analysis shows great potential in aiding the development of watershed management strategy. This paper elaborated a new paradigm using watershed modeling and scenario analysis for soil and water conservation, illustrated this new paradigm through two cases for practical watershed management, and explored the future development of this new soil and water conservation paradigm.