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Abstract The upstream of the Cisadane Watershed is included in the Mount Halimun Salak National Park area as the water catchment area. Water resource conservation is important because of land use change. Rainfall analysis was carried out to determine the rain intensity amount. Then, infiltration observations were also carried out in Ecosystem Restoration (ER) areas. ER is an area in the rehabilitation zone that requires improvement, especially in biophysical improvement. Several ER areas are in Cibunian Village and Purwabakti Village. The analysis determined the infiltration rates in the ER areas. Field surveys carried out data collection on infiltration sample measurements. Sample points were selected using Stratified Random Sampling. The results show the average rainfall in the study area is around 3950 mm/year. The results show the infiltration ability in the ER area is relatively slow. However, there are still results of rapid infiltration at several sample points. Due to limited water absorption capacity, soil characteristics with clay texture influence slow infiltration conditions. Even though the rainfall is high, surface water runoff is quickly formed. The rainfall in the Cisadane watershed should be stored to reserve water supply, especially during the dry season. In detail, water storage can be an infiltration pit, artificial water storage tanks, reservoirs, or ponds. The limited availability of water resources challenges water uses in the Cisadane Watershed. This research is essential as an initial study to find out more about the watershed hydrological system and the water demand level.

This research investigates the effects of land use/land cover (LULC) and demographical changes on runoff and erosion processes in the watersheds of border highlands in Serbia. It provides an interdisciplinary approach, linking demography (human geography) with physical geography (hydrology and geomorphology). (A) A predominant decrease in curve number (CN), a key hydrological indicator, is recorded in more than 20 watersheds in Eastern and Southeastern Serbia, largely due to continuous depopulation and abandonment of arable land over recent decades. In contrast, minor CN changes are dominant in over 10 watersheds in Western and Southwestern Serbia. (B) Through cluster analysis, four regions are spatially delineated by changes in four key indicators: runoff, soil erosion, agricultural land use, and rural population. Soil erosion change is correlated with the deagrarianisation and depopulation processes at a significance of p < 0.0001 with r = 0.580 and r = 0.629, respectively. The border watersheds are being studied for the first time using a complex approach that analyses the relationships between changes in demography, land use, surface runoff, and soil erosion. The study results contribute to a better understanding of sustainable land management and risk management in the hilly and mountainous border regions, which are particularly vulnerable to torrential flooding and soil erosion.

Biodiversity and ecosystem service models are frequently used to consider current conditions or recent changes in the availability of a service. The application of scenarios for biodiversity and ecosystem service assessment remains underdeveloped, particularly co-designed and fine-granular scenarios across different decision-making boundaries. Consequently, the data created by these modeling efforts may not be as valuable to conservation partners and policy makers. In this project, we used land use and land cover change scenarios co-developed with local and regional decision-makers in northwestern Virginia USA as key inputs for 18 different biodiversity and ecosystem service models. Specifically, we used the InVEST suite of models to predict the change in biodiversity and ecosystem indicators and evaluated differences in that change between scenarios and decision-making boundaries. We found that the scenarios produced distinct results for the majority of biodiversity and ecosystem services, especially as a function of population growth. However, we also found that some services varied more as a function of subregions reflecting the existing diversity of ecosystems and governance structures in the area. The co-designed scenarios and summary of the data across units resulted in the production of varied results that can be used to support land use planning by implementing partners.

Payments for ecosystem services have recently been introduced into the ecosystem management landscape to counter ecosystem degradation. This study examines the experiences of sustainable use and management of watersheds using a compensation for ecosystem service model in the Koga watershed, Northern Ethiopia. The study primarily employed qualitative methods. Thirteen informants, chosen from a group of project implementers, were contacted for telephone interviews, and a document analysis was also conducted. Thematic approaches were employed to analysis the data. The study findings revealed that a project had been introduced to implement an innovative payment/compensation for ecosystem services (CES) scheme to manage watersheds and to alleviate poverty in the watershed. The scheme connected upstream and downstream communities and cooperatives through CES, earning praise for its effectiveness in combating dam siltation and watershed degradation. The initiative also established various enabling conditions, such as capacity building, bylaw formulation, and payment procedures for beneficiary communities. However, the CES scheme still has a long way to go to deliver the anticipated positive impacts on local livelihoods and watershed management. It is believed that a comprehensive legal framework, a stable political and social environment, and sustainable financing mechanisms are crucial for the success of any CES project. Therefore, Ethiopia should strive to meet these requirements to ensure that any future CES projects are designed and implemented sustainably.

BackgroundBiogeochemical exports from watersheds are modulated by the activity of microorganisms that function over micron scales. Here, we tested the hypothesis that meander-bound regions share a core microbiome and exhibit patterns of metabolic potential that broadly predict biogeochemical processes in floodplain soils along a river corridor.ResultsWe intensively sampled the microbiomes of floodplain soils located in the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the East River, Colorado. Despite the very high microbial diversity and complexity of the soils, we reconstructed 248 quality draft genomes representative of subspecies. Approximately one third of these bacterial subspecies was detected across all three locations at similar abundance levels, and ~ 15% of species were detected in two consecutive years. Within the meander-bound floodplains, we did not detect systematic patterns of gene abundance based on sampling position relative to the river. However, across meanders, we identified a core floodplain microbiome that is enriched in capacities for aerobic respiration, aerobic CO oxidation, and thiosulfate oxidation with the formation of elemental sulfur. Given this, we conducted a transcriptomic analysis of the middle floodplain. In contrast to predictions made based on the prominence of gene inventories, the most highly transcribed genes were relatively rare amoCAB and nxrAB (for nitrification) genes, followed by genes involved in methanol and formate oxidation, and nitrogen and CO2 fixation. Within all three meanders, low soil organic carbon correlated with high activity of genes involved in methanol, formate, sulfide, hydrogen, and ammonia oxidation, nitrite oxidoreduction, and nitrate and nitrite reduction. Overall, the results emphasize the importance of sulfur, one-carbon and nitrogen compound metabolism in soils of the riparian corridor.ConclusionsThe disparity between the scale of a microbial cell and the scale of a watershed currently limits the development of genomically informed predictive models describing watershed biogeochemical function. Meander-bound floodplains appear to serve as scaling motifs that predict aggregate capacities for biogeochemical transformations, providing a foundation for incorporating riparian soil microbiomes in watershed models. Widely represented genetic capacities did not predict in situ activity at one time point, but rather they define a reservoir of biogeochemical potential available as conditions change. Video abstract.

Water quality for irrigation purposes has yet to be considered seriously in many places around the globe. The present case study at the Oued-Hammam watershed in northeast Algeria aims to investigate using a soft computing technique, namely an artificial neural network, to predict irrigation water quality indicators of Sodium absorption ratio (SAR) and Electrical Conductivity (EC). Fourteen water quality parameters were collected at Zit Emba reservoir from 2010 to 2022. Among them, four parameters, namely Sodium (Na), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), and Bicarbonate (HCO3-), were used as inputs and SAR as an output. Also, five parameters of Total hardness (TH), Total dissolved solids (TDS), Calcium (Ca), Bicarbonate (HCO3-) and Sodium (Na) were used as inputs and EC as an output; the Pearson correlation matrix was used to select the input parameters with respect with the output parameter. The back-propagation neural networks learning algorithm was used to model the SAR and EC's irrigation water quality index (IWQI). The models' performances were evaluated using statistical criteria of correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error (RMSE). Back propagation neural network learning algorithm maximum correlation coefficient for SAR and EC were 0.98077 and 0.97762, respectively, also with a minimum RMSE of 0.037 for SAR and 101.8 for EC. Thus, the current study suggests that artificial neural network (ANN) models are the most effective tools for predicting water quality parameters. Their outcome can be used effectively in managing and controlling water pollution around the watershed.

Aquifer vulnerability maps are useful to contribute to the protection of groundwater resources against possible contamination. The objective of this study is to determine the vulnerability to pollution of groundwater in Soummam catchment area (Northern Algeria) based on the GOD method by applying these three parameters: Groundwater occurrence (G), Overall aquifer class (O) and Depth to groundwater table (D). The mapping of these different parameters allows, after their superposition, the establishment of the vulnerability map. The map obtained highlights five zones with different degrees of vulnerability: extreme (0.7-1.0), strong (0.5-0.7), moderate (0.3-0.5), weak (0.1-0.3) and very weak (0.0-0.1). Occupy respectively (3%, 40%, 15%, 7%, and 35%) of the total basin area. The use of the vulnerability map contributes to the sustainable protection of natural resources. The projection of the pollution sources on the vulnerability map allowed us to establish the risk map.

According to the Water Framework Directive 2000/60 EC, the river basin is the basic unit for integrated water management at the basin level. In this sense, the knowledge of the morphometric parameters of the river takes on special importance. Morphometric analysis helps in understanding the geo-hydrological characteristics of a river basin. Various authors point out that the morphometric analyses of a drainage watershed demonstrate the dynamic equilibrium that has been achieved due to the interaction between matter and energy. The analysis of morphometric parameters also facilitates and helps to understand the hydrological relations of the basin. This paper deals with the morphometric analysis of sub-basins in the Klina River basin which is located in the northeastern part of the Dukagjini depression. To determine the morphometric parameters in the Klina River basin, the digital relief model from the Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS) platform with a resolution of 20 × 20 m and the ArcMap 10.5 software were used. The results reveal that the total number of streams is 753 of which 602 are 1st order streams, 119 – 2nd order, 23 – 3rd order, 6 – 4th order, 2 – 5th order, and 1 – 6th order streams. The mean bifurcation ratio is 3.81, drainage density is 1.52 km∙km–2. The data and information presented in this study will be helpful and interesting in the plan of the management of Klina River basin which covers an area of 477 km2 within which is estimated to live about 100,000 inhabitants.

The Baro Akobo River is representative of lower Baro watersheds with lost soils. Under eight landscapes, the geospatial and temporal variability of system water use efficiency (sWUE) were examined in a total area of 20,325 km2. This study used GIS, RS, Cropwat8.0, and EasyFit software. The anticipated irrigation requirement for the selected crop's driest five months of May, February, March, January, and April was 1, 0.9, 0.78, 0.78, and 0.34 l/s/h, respectively. The sub-catchment had maximum critical test values of σ = 12.6, μ = 11.9, and γ = 0, while Sor Metu showed the smallest value of 0.80, 1.75, and −0.03. Across the watershed, the sWUE varies with runoff, with a coefficient of variation of 71%. The overall accuracy of the land cover change was 81%, the Landsat 8 images of the soil-adjusted vegetation index showed a maximum value of 0.87 and a minimum of −1.5. The normalized vegetation index ranged from a maximum of 0.58 to a minimum of −1. By 2050, the sWUE will be 10% lower temporally, but its spatial variability will be 25% higher. Therefore, soil infiltration and water storage improve, which decreases runoff and the water lost by ET and raises sWUE. HIGHLIGHTS The study provides valuable information on possible future changes in system water use under a changing climate.; A large amount of soil is eroded from the upstream and supplied to the lower watershed of Baro, Gambella, by the Baro Akobo River.; Rainfall and temperature patterns over the watershed on hydrological variables and the change in land cover have an impact on the system for managing soil, water, and crops.;

Watershed management is necessary to conserve water resources because the watershed hydrological processes are more affected by climate and land use change, resulting in the problems of droughts, floods, soil erosion, etc. This study determined suitable alternatives that can ensure viable strategies for tackling the climate change impacts at the Soan River Basin (SRB). A framework was applied to assess the impacts of climate change and land use/cover change (LUCC) using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). A multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was used to prioritize watershed management alternatives by comparing watershed management criteria and alternatives using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Framework findings showed a 69 and 31% decline in runoff, and a 58 and 42% increment in evapotranspiration (ET) due to climate change and LUCC, respectively. The top prioritized suitable alternatives were water harvesting structure (WHS) and vegetative cover (VC). Suitability analysis showed that 63.61 and 16.56% area of the SRB were moderately to highly suitable for WHS, respectively. For soil and water management, VC has been found suitable to moderately suitable for 72.68 and 26.75% of the basin area, respectively. So, there should be adoption of such measures which will assist in configuring the climate adaptive strategies. HIGHLIGHTS Climate change and LUCC were assessed through a framework using the SWAT model.; AHP was used for watershed management via suitable alternatives.; Water harvesting structures and vegetative cover were found to be the best alternatives for watershed management.; The selected alternatives can mitigate the climate change impacts on the watershed and may supplement to improve management practices.;

Abstract Integrated watershed management is the method of overseeing human exercises and characteristic assets on a water shed basis, taking into consideration social and financial concerns. It is an ever-evolving hone including the administration of arrive, water, biota, and other assets and it requires involvement of strong institutions at the grass root level. Most watershed projects were not successful due to a lack of effective community participation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the contribution of community participation in integrated watershed management schemes in the Dandi lake watershed (Ethiopia) for long-term water resource conservation initiatives and short-term livelihood activities that enables the communities of the study area to meet their needs. Questionnaires, FGD, key informant interviews, personal observation were used as data collection tools. The collected data were organized and categorized according to the intended objectives and analyzed in qualitative and quantitative methods. The result of the study showed that role of community participation in participatory watershed management was examined by involvement in different management phases, 65.1% were involved only in the implementation stage, only 27.6% of respondents confirmed as they involve in all stages, 5.9 and 1.3% of sampled respondents witnessed as they are only involved in planning and mapping stage of watershed management. This study revealed that community participation in water shade management was hindered due to shortage of resources, interest, and previous experience, as well as peer pressure. In the meantime some successful efforts have been made on different land uses meant to reduce natural resource degradation and food security problems. These efforts include, contribution of delivered extension service, infrastructure provision and maintenance. The study also realized and proved the existence of unused development potential to improve the livelihood situation of the watershed community. This study came up with a good managerial implication, typically, it enhances Community engagement status by increasing its visibility and understanding of issues and empowers communities to have a say in decisions that affect their lives, cities and neighborhoods. The watershed management guidelines have to be clear to the community.

Gully erosion is one of the most intense landscape degradation mechanisms in areas with varying environmental characteristics. Both natural and anthropogenic factors affect the gullying process. Reliable documentation of these processes in tropical African cities is scarce. This study assessed the gully erosion dynamic and the susceptibility factors in the urban watershed of Kimemi in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Data were obtained through a combination of fieldwork and digitization of very high spatial resolution images from Google Earth (from 2011 to 2021). The length, width, and area of large gullies (width ≥ 5 m) were measured for each year of the study. A logistic regression model (LRM) was also used to investigate the influence of both physical and anthropogenic factors on gully susceptibility. The results revealed that the number of gullies has increased from 36 to 61 during the last decade. The gully mean length of 63.9 ± 61.1 m, 129.3 ± 104.9 m, and 174.7 ± 153.8 m were obtained for the years 2011, 2015, and 2021 respectively. The average density of gully network for the study period was 0.12 km/km², while the degraded land was ∼1.3 and ∼1.1 ha/year for 2011–2015 and 2015–2021 for the entire watershed. The significant changes in morphometric parameters (length, width, area) were found only in the bare land and building land uses. A strong and positive relationship between the length (m) and the area (ha) was found. Furthermore, the susceptibility of gullying was significantly influenced by the slope, stream power index (SPI), distance to roads and rivers, land use and land cover (LULC), and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). This means the areas located in the bare land and building or close to roads and/or streams are more likely to be gullied. The findings emphasize the impact of urbanization on gully erosion in the Kimemi watershed, highlighting the importance of informed land management decisions with a close attention to anthropogenic factors.

Extreme weather conditions like floods and droughts call for careful planning and management of water resources in order to prevent fatalities and other negative effects. Modern soft computing and machine learning approaches have provided a solution for simulating these hydrological phenomena despite the complexity and non-linear character of these phenomena, which depend on diverse parameters. Distributed or semi-distributed models for large-size watershed areas with geographical irregularity and heterogeneity necessitate a substantial amount of high-quality spatial data. This research uses 40 years (1981–2020) of daily rainfall-runoff data to illustrate the application of two data-driven models, random forest regression (RFR) and feed-forward neural network (FFNN), for semi-arid, large-size watershed areas. To understand the effect of input data, different input–output combinations were considered to simulate eight rainfall-runoff models. Results show that both RFR and FFNN models have successfully performed but RFR model performance is best with correlation coefficient values of 0.9928 (M6) and 0.9926 (M1). HIGHLIGHTS Spatially well-distributed, low rain-gauge density data can provide good results.; RFR model performance for peak-flow estimation is better than FFNN.; A data-driven model proves a better option for the large watershed with low rain-gauge density for flood warning systems.;

Cross-border floods are not only cross-country and cross-province floods but also include cross-district/city floods. The flood that occurred in Sukoharjo Regency was a cross-border flood (cross-border flood) covering four upstream districts, namely Boyolali, Klaten, Wonogiri and Karangnanyar Regencies. The management needed concerning cross-border flooding is the handling of integrated cross-border synergies that enter the Watershed (DAS) with countermeasures, not only structural but non-structural, and involving all stakeholders. This study uses a combination of spatial science and critical human geography paradigms so that the appropriate research design is a mixed method, namely research with both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The critical human geography paradigm is also used here in conjunction with the political ecology approach in tracing the increased risk of flood disasters associated with an expanded urbanization process, an approach derived from production space theory. The results of this study show that the integration of disaster management between regions is very important, both upstream and downstream. Human activities in the upstream region greatly affect the downstream region

Watersheds have an important role in managing rainwater. A good watershed can provide sufficient water for the community in the dry season and does not cause flooding in the rainy season. Therefore, watershed preservation is necessary as an effort to maintain or improve its function. Rehabilitation is an effort to restore, maintain, and improve the watershed function. In this study, rehabilitation was carried out in an area of 285 ha which cuts two watersheds, Langkapa and Poleang watershed. The success of this rehabilitation can be reviewed through the runoff coefficient before and after rehabilitation. The runoff coefficient is a value that expresses the percentage of rainwater that turns into surface runoff water. That value can be an indicator of the watershed quality. The determination of the runoff coefficient in this study used the Cook Method which considers four physical parameters, land cover, slope, soil infiltration, and surface deposit/flow density. The results showed the runoff coefficient decreased after the rehabilitation from 68.54% to 65.85% which means the rehabilitation has improved the watershed quality. But those change is not significant because the rehabilitation location actually is not the priority land (critical land) that needs rehabilitation.

Land use changes become a problem that contributes to the decline in the watershed function and performance. Bedadung watershed divides Jember Regency, which has upstream from Mount Raung and a downstream Indonesian Ocean. During the last ten years in Jember, there has been a flood from the overflow of the Bedadung river, which is unable to accommodate water from upstream. It is alleged that the cause of flooding in upstream of the Bedadung watershed is land cover and land capability that has changed. The purpose of this study was to assess land use changes using a composite approach to Landsat 8 imagery and land capability index for the upstream of the Bedadung watershed. The results showed that land cover of the Kesambi sub-watershed during 1995-2020, forest decreased by 34.74%, settlements and open land decreased by 47.25%, dry land increased by 120%, while plantations and rainfed rice fields were fixed. The decrease in forest area can disrupt the water cycle, thereby increasing runoff volume and water discharge, causing flooding downstream of the Bedadung watershed and upstream of the Bedadung watershed. Land capability evaluation of the upstream of Kesambi sub-watershed, area of Bedadung watershed was mostly in class III, covering 5782.9 hectares (85.53%), class IV covering 214.8 hectares (3.18%), class VI covering 379.7 hectares (5.62%), and class VII covering 383.9 hectares (5.68%) with limiting factors of effective soil depth, land slope/slope, erosion sensitivity, and drainage. Areas with class III land capability covering land mapping units 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 can be utilized as agricultural with good conservation technology, while land mapping units 4.5, and 8 are only capable for forest areas.