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The alpine terrestrials of the Maloti-Drakensberg in southern Africa play crucial roles in ecosystem functions and livelihoods, yet they face escalating degradation from various factors including overgrazing and climate change. This study employs advanced Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) techniques coupled with remote sensing to map and assess wetland coverage and degradation in the northern Maloti-Drakensberg. The model achieved high accuracies of 96% and 92% for training and validation data, respectively, with Kappa statistics of 0.91 and 0.83, marking a pioneering automated attempt at wetland mapping in this region. Terrain attributes such as terrain wetness index (TWI) and valley depth (VD) exhibit significant positive correlations with wetland coverage and erosion gully density, Channel Network Depth and slope were negative correlated. Gully density analysis revealed terrain attributes as dominant factors driving degradation, highlighting the need to consider catchment-specific susceptibility to erosion. This challenge traditional assumptions which mainly attribute wetland degradation to external forces such as livestock overgrazing, ice rate activity and climate change. The sensitivity map produced could serve as a basis for Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) projects, facilitating tailored conservation strategies. Future research should expand on this work to include other highland areas, explore additional covariates, and categorize wetlands based on hydroperiod and sensitivity to degradation. This comprehensive study underscores the potential of DSM and remote sensing in accurately assessing and managing wetland ecosystems, crucial for sustainable resource management in alpine regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few factors are as important in determining water quality as land use/land cover (LULC). Many land use activities, including agriculture, urban development, mining, and commercial forestry, tend to be sources of diffuse pollution. By contrast, indigenous vegetation can act as a sink, thus providing some protection from diffuse anthropogenic contamination. Notwithstanding the large body of research demonstrating these facts, decision-makers require clear and accessible information to assist them in developing effective management plans that are fully cognisant of the manifold impacts of LULC on water resources. Reviewing the available literature, this article offers a critical overview of the typical impacts of LULC on water quality. An important strategy for managing water quality highlighted in this article is the maintenance of a sufficient amount of unfragmented natural vegetation, not only within riparian zones but also across catchment areas. However, knowledge gaps identified in this review indicate that further context-specific research is required to determine not only the types and minimum amount of vegetative cover required to protect water resources from diffuse pollution but also the potential impact of landscape fragmentation on the ability of natural vegetation to protect water resources. A critical discussion of these factors is therefore provided. HIGHLIGHTS Improper land use management can have profound impacts on water quality.; While most anthropogenic land use activities generate diffuse pollution, natural vegetation can protect water resources by acting as a sink and biofilter.; Maintaining sufficient areas of unfragmented natural vegetation in both riparian areas and across whole catchments is an important water quality management strategy.; Local research is essential for determining not only which types of vegetation will offer water resources the most efficacious protection, but also for estimating the extent required to offer adequate levels of protection.;

This case study uses the concept of ecosystem services and specifically payments for ecosystem services, alongside five experiences from the Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT), which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2024, to demonstrate the need for integrated catchment management (ICM). It highlights the multifaceted benefits that ecosystems provide to human well-being, the challenges faced in managing these often-siloed services and the role of ICM in preserving and enhancing multiple ecosystem services, focusing on the water-related drivers of flooding, drought, water quality and aquatic biodiversity. Through WRT projects this case study highlights practical applications and successes in managing ecosystem services at the catchment level and what considerations are needed for future integration and delivery of multi-benefit solutions. This paper is derived in part from the interviews and workshops undertaken as part of the Atlantic Area Interreg funded Triple C project (EAPA_772/2018), as well as contributions from the Horizon funded, InnWater project (Horizon EUROPE No. 101036683 and UKRI No. 10066637) and the OFWAT-funded, mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-system change, freshwater use, biodiversity loss, and changes in biogeochemical flows affect the resilience of the Earth system as a whole. Effective communication between scientists and policy makers is critical in addressing these challenges. Simulation models can be used as integrators of knowledge and data, and play a key role in facilitating effective boundary work between science and policy. Key issues identified are the reliability of model outcomes and the acknowledgement of their uncertainty. However, the use of models provides an advantage when analysing scenarios. Integrated catchment models can provide feedback about joint interpretation of the data and conceptual understanding, resulting in the identification of data needs. The difficulties related to improving how science informs policy is one of communication and negotiation at the boundary, and models can assist in the co-production between researchers and decision makers.

This study uses a community-based assessment in conjunction with the integrated catchment management and community capitals frameworks to explore the iTaukei (indigenous Fijian) knowledge systems relative to the management of natural resources in the villages in the Waimanu Catchment. The iTaukei knowledge systems encompassing traditional beliefs, values, customs, and social relations within the villages were used to devise adaptive strategies to improve the physical, financial, human, cultural, social, and political capitals in order to enhance the natural capital in the Waimanu Catchment. Improving the health of local ecosystems would increase the adaptive capacity of the local communities, which would ultimately, make the communities resilient to the impacts of climate change and human activities. It is therefore, essential to implement an integrated management plan on a catchment scale which considers the interconnectedness between people and the ecosystems as well as the upstream–downstream connectivity since land use changes undertaken upstream affect the resilience of downstream communities. The study emphasized that the enrichment of human capital, social bonding, and collaboration among the internal and external stakeholders consisting of government, quasi-government and non-government organizations, industries and businesses, and landowners located both within and outside of the catchment served as the key principles to help achieve community resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) frames water management in Ireland to account for the complex hydrological, biophysical, and environmental interactions along with the political, socio-economic and cultural influences inherent in the management of river catchments. Despite a range of European Union (EU) Directives, national laws, policies, and incentives, the quality of water and biological diversity in Irish rivers is declining. In response, there has been an increased effort to involve local communities in ICM through a bottom-up, nature-based citizen science approach to activate local cooperation and environmental stewardship. This paper assembles 157 examples of citizen science water-based projects (48 in Ireland as of 2021) to appraise the position of community-led water monitoring in ICM. Notable differences found between the Irish and international programmes found a greater emphasis on habitat internationally, while a taxonomy focus was evident in Ireland despite a lower number of skilled volunteer activity-based citizen science projects. The continuing decline in water quality in Ireland, even with appropriate regulations, commendable governance changes, and expansion of citizen science, suggests more work is necessary before there will be successful ICM and improvements to river water quality.

Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) frames water management in Ireland to account for the complex hydrological, biophysical, and environmental interactions along with the political, socio-economic and cultural influences inherent in the management of river catchments. Despite a range of European Union (EU) Directives, national laws, policies, and incentives, the quality of water and biological diversity in Irish rivers is declining. In response, there has been an increased effort to involve local communities in ICM through a bottom-up, nature-based citizen science approach to activate local cooperation and environmental stewardship. This paper assembles 157 examples of citizen science water-based projects (48 in Ireland as of 2021) to appraise the position of community-led water monitoring in ICM. Notable differences found between the Irish and international programmes found a greater emphasis on habitat internationally, while a taxonomy focus was evident in Ireland despite a lower number of skilled volunteer activity-based citizen science projects. The continuing decline in water quality in Ireland, even with appropriate regulations, commendable governance changes, and expansion of citizen science, suggests more work is necessary before there will be successful ICM and improvements to river water quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Use the ICM model as a tool to investigate, analyze and summarize the basic data of the sewage system to form a sewage system database to construct the sewage pipe network model topology. Use the model checking tool to check and carry out the error data in the pipe network during the model building process. The second re-survey makes the topology of the model more accurate. Determine the relevant parameters of the model through on-site investigations, query relevant information and relevant literature, use the basic data provided by relevant departments to set the flow process line and delimit the population of the catchment area, and use the measured daily cumulative flow data of the pumping station and the sewage treatment plant. The average value of the influent water quality index is used to calibrate and check the model, and build a credible hydraulic model and water quality model of the sew-age pipe network. The checked sewage pipe network model is used to evaluate the current status of the sewage system. The current water delivery capacity of the pipe network is analyzed from the three perspectives of pipeline overload status, flow rate, and pump station operating status. The pipeline is at fa load or even Overload operation, the current operating state is poor. A simulation comparison of different sediment depths shows that the clogging seriously affects the water delivery capacity and regulation and storage capacity of the pipeline network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linkage created by migratory birds in time and space and between different global ecosystems, local biodiversity and diverse human culture epitomises the concept of "All Life on Earth". The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat, referred to as the Ramsar Convention below, uses bird abundance as a means to identify the relative significance of Wetlands of International Importance, tightly linking the most threatened wetlands on our planet with waterbird conservation. Wetland loss and degradation in Asia has caused a dramatic decrease in waterbird abundance and diversity, underlining the critical need for monitoring and conserving those natural systems that remain. Through close cooperation with 10 other countries, the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has established the largest migratory bird movement ecological database in Asia, with independent intellectual property rights. It contains basic data on the migration strategies and flyways of large-bodied birds in Asia. Analyses of these data have shown that migratory large-bodied birds from over 20 Asian countries have all used wetland habitats in China, and the area of intensive use accounts for less than 1.5% of China's total land area, mainly concentrated in the floodplains of just six river systems. Furthermore, we have identified critical relationships between wetland area, inundation area, hydrological process and bird abundance, diversity and behaviour. Large-scale development of wetland and water resources has caused loss and degradation of waterbird habitat, resulting in dramatic decreases in waterbird numbers. From a global perspective, the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats represents a common challenge for all human beings. In recent years, China has pioneered the successful conservation of its most threatened typical wetlands, which provides valuable practical experience and confidence for global biodiversity conservation. Finally, we make recommendations as to how China can take the lead in organizing global migratory bird monitoring and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The planting of degraded land with tree plantations may be effective at improving land use sustainability and profitability but it can also have significant effects on stream hydrology. In this paired catchment study, we report the stream hydrological response to partial (62%) afforestation of a steep pastoral catchment in the western Waikato Region, North Island, New Zealand. We comprehensively analyse the hydrological regime changes over a 23-year period (including eight years before pine planting) with reference to a native-forested 'control' catchment. Our results show that afforestation has markedly affected stream hydrology. Seven years after planting, the total annual runoff was 380 mm lower than predicted for the catchment in pasture. Two phases of plantation thinning resulted in the difference between measured and predicted runoff reducing to only 129 mm. Peak flows reduced by ∼50% while total stormflow reduced by ∼30% – which we attribute to canopy interception attenuating and delaying water yield. The impact of plantation establishment on low flows is not so clear, although afforestation appears to have reduced low flows by ∼25%. This study provides information on the hydrological impact of afforestation within a hitherto poorly-represented New Zealand environment (i.e. high rainfall, sedimentary lithology-based, North Island hill country). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing socioecological demands and pressures on land and water resources have the potential to increase land use conflict. Understanding ecosystem service provisioning and trade-offs, competing land uses, and conflict between stakeholder groups in catchments is therefore critical to inform catchment management and the sustainable use of natural resources. We developed a novel stakeholder engagement methodology that incorporates participatory conflict mapping in three catchments with a short questionnaire to identify the perceptions of 43 participants from four key land and water management stakeholder groups: environmental regulators, water industry practitioners, the farm advisor community, and academics. The participatory mapping exercise produced heat maps of perceived conflict and land use competition, providing spatial detail of the complex combination of land use issues faced by catchment managers. Distinct, localised hotspots were identified in areas under pressure from flooding, abstraction, and urbanisation; as well as more dispersed issues of relevance at the landscape scale, such as from farming, forestry, energy production, and tourism. Subsequent regression modelling linked perceived conflict to land cover maps and identified coastal, urban, and grassland areas as the most likely land cover types associated with conflict in the study catchments. Our approach to participatory conflict mapping provides a novel platform for catchment management and can facilitate increased cooperation among different catchment stakeholders. In turn, land and water management conflicts can be recognised and their underlying drivers and likely solutions identified in an effort to better manage competing demands on catchment resources.

Highlights • Stream nitrate concentrations increased in response to forest planting and stand thinning. • Stream nitrate concentrations were an order of magnitude higher at a first rotation forestry site. • Dissolved reactive phosphorus increased in response to planting at one site. • Forestry management had no detectable effect on other measured water quality variables. Abstract Many long-term forestry water quality studies focus on the impact of the harvesting phase of forestry operations. As a result, the water quality impacts of other activities such as forest (re)planting, thinning and fertilising are less well understood. Here we report the results from 23 years of monthly water quality monitoring from a steep headwater catchment within the Waikato region, New Zealand. Three experimental sub-catchments were planted in different proportions of Pinus radiata (PW2 = 100%, K-Pine 57%; PW3 = 36%). PW2 and PW3 were historical pastoral sites in the first rotation of plantation forestry and K-Pine was harvested and subsequently planted in a second rotation of forestry. All sites underwent two phases of stand thinning six and eight years after planting. The most significant effect of forestry was the increase in nitrate-N (NO 3 -N) and total nitrogen (TN) concentrations in response to both stand planting and stand thinning operations. Planting resulted in significant increases in NO 3 -N, TN and DRP over a four-year planting period at PW2. Significant increases in NO 3 -N and TN were detected over a four-year thinning period, at all three experimental sites. We propose that stream NO 3 -N and TN concentrations increased in response to stand planting at PW2 because of the change in physical conditions (e.g. increased stream shading, proliferation of nitrogen fixing weeds and decreased spatial extent of seepage wetlands) caused by the change in land use. Increasing nitrogen concentrations due to decreasing stream runoff could also be contributing a factor. Any decrease in NO 3 -N and TN concentrations in response to increased uptake by the rapidly growing P. radiata appears to have been masked by these other factors. However, the increase in NO 3 -N and TN concentrations in response to stand thinning at all three experimental sites suggests that NO 3 -N uptake by growing trees is an important process. Over the entire forestry period, median NO 3 -N concentrations at PW2 (first rotation site) increased by a factor four (400–1590 µg l−1). The median NO 3 -N during the post-thinning period was also one order of magnitude higher than those measured at K-Pine (second rotation site) during the post-thinning period. We attribute these differences to the NO 3 -N legacy within soil and/or groundwater of the previous sheep and beef cattle grazing land use. Long-term use of the PW2 catchment for forestry may eventually reduce NO 3 -N concentrations to the lower levels measured at K-Pine. Therefore, while NO 3 -N concentrations and loads may increase in response to the establishment of plantation forestry we envisage that these will decline if plantation forestry continues beyond the first rotation. This research highlights: (i) the complex nature of the response of stream water quality to catchment land use changes, and (ii) the value of studies that monitor the impact of land use/cover change over the long-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In the agriculture intensive eastern region of England, plant protection products are widely applied to protect crops such as wheat and oilseed rape from pests and diseases, thus creating a risk of reaching nearby water courses through surface runoff. The EU Drinking Water Directive sets a stringent limit of 0.1 μg/l and 0.5 μg/l for individual and total pesticides respectively in treated potable water. However, peak metaldehyde levels have been persistently detected in raw water and reducing them to these limits has proven challenging and costly, in particular when using conventional treatment. In line with the EU Water Framework Directive, a more suitable approach and one adopted by the local water company, Anglian Water Services Ltd., would require moving towards mitigating pollution at source, preferably through participative action with multiple stakeholders in the agricultural industry. Initial findings demonstrate the potential of product substitution for reducing metaldehyde levels in surface waters. Reviewing Anglian Water's "Slug it Out" trial, we discuss key learnings derived from their experiences and make recommendations about the potential of the catchment approach to address the wider pesticide challenge. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Regulatory risk of pesticides reaching waters through surface runoff • Metaldehyde detected in raw waters and difficult to remove for potable use • Engaging farmers to reduce pollution at source preferable to end-of-pipe treatment • Product substitution trial effective in reducing metaldehyde levels in water • Further investigation for upscaling to address wider pesticide challenge [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Sustainable management of global natural resources is challenged by social and environmental drivers, adding pressure to ecosystem service provision in many regions of the world where there are competing demands on environmental resources. Understanding trade-offs between ecosystem services and how they are valued by different stakeholder groups is therefore critical to maximise benefits and avoid conflict between competing uses. In this study we developed a novel participatory trade-off experiment to elicit the perception of 43 participants, from across four key stakeholder groups, working in land and water management (Environmental Regulators, Farming Advisors, Water Industry Staff and Catchment Scientists). Using the Production Possibility Frontier (PPF) concept, we quantified stakeholder assessment of both the shape and the uncertainty around the PPF in a trade-off between agricultural intensity and the ecological health of freshwater systems. The majority of stakeholder groups selected threshold and logistic decay trade-off curves to describe the relationship of the trade-off, and estimated the uncertainty around the curves to be intermediate or large. The views of the four stakeholder groups differed significantly regarding how they estimated stakeholder trade-off prioritisation; the largest difference in perspectives was identified between Environmental Regulators and Farm Advisors. The methodology considered the cultural, socio-economic and institutional specificities of an ecosystem service interaction and identified potential sources of conflict but also possible solutions for win-win opportunities to explore and share understanding between stakeholders. Valuing stakeholder knowledge as a form of expert data and integrating this into participatory decision-making processes for land and water management thus contributes considerable value beyond traditional approaches to ecosystem service assessments. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Participatory trade-off analysis aids understanding of people's demands on ecosystems • Our novel, mixed-method survey quantified stakeholder perceptions of a trade-off • Views differed most between Environmental Regulators and Farming Advisors • The methodology revealed sources of conflict and solutions for win-win opportunities • We provide a quick, engaging approach to facilitate cooperation between stakeholders [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Recognition of the need to manage the water environment in more holistic ways has resulted in the global growth of Integrated Catchment Management (ICM). ICM is characterised by horizontal integration, encouraging interdisciplinary working between traditionally disparate management sectors, alongside vertical integration, characterised by the engagement of communities; central is the promotion of participatory governance and management decision-making. ICM has been translated into policy through, for example, the EU Water Framework Directive and at a national level by policies such as the Catchment Based Approach in England. Research exploring the implementation of these policies has reported success at a catchment level, but further research is required to explore practices of management at local level within catchments. This paper presents the findings of participatory research undertaken with a catchment partnership in the northeast of England to explore the integration of top-down policy translation with how local communities interact with management agencies at sub-catchment scale (a bottom-up perspective). The research found that supra-catchment scale drivers dominate the vertical interplay between management systems at more local levels. These drivers embed traditional practices of management, which establishes public participation as a barrier to delivery of top-down management objectives, resulting in practices that exclude communities and participatory movements at the local level. Although collaboration between agencies at the partnership scale offers a potential solution to overcoming these obstacles, the paper recommends changes to supra-catchment governance structures to encourage flexibility in developing local participatory movements as assets. Further research is necessary to develop new practices of management to integrate local people more effectively into the management process. Highlights • Integrated Catchment Management policies promotes active public participation. • How effectively ICM policy is translated into practices of participation is explored. • Management practices exclude local communities and obstruct participation. • Local practices show a dominant vertical interplay with supra-catchment drivers. • Research on governance reform and new participatory practices is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Integrated Kaipara Harbour Management Group (IKHMG) promotes the integrated management, inter-agency coordination and kaitiakitanga of the Kaipara Harbour and its catchment. Led by the hapū (subtribe) Te Uri o Hau, the group is a collective of stakeholders and community. In 2013, the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) and Te Uri o Hau examined the IKHMG to understand what enables and hinders mātauranga-informed management of the Kaipara Harbour. A review of literature relating to mātauranga and environmental resource management found a myriad of issues in integrating indigenous knowledge with science, or with indigenous knowledge holders working with scientists and/or resource managers. Our cross-cultural collaborative research examined to what extent the IKHMG overcame these issues and incorporated mātauranga into planning and decision-making. We make the case that the challenge facing cross-cultural integrated catchment programmes should not be so much ‘how to integrate indigenous knowledge into resource management’ but ‘how to integrate indigenous knowledge holders into planning and decision-making’ to enable indigenous knowledge holders to articulate management in their own terms as an expression of self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A participatory, ecosystem services approach for pressure prioritisation is presented. • Use of ecosystem services within a risk assessment framework to prioritise pressures. • Integrating ecosystem services in Water Framework Directive's procedural elements. • Use ecosystem services in river basin planning to enable ecosystems approach. Abstract The pressure and impact analysis is an important process in integrated river basin management and a key procedural element of the EU Water Framework Directive. It aims to inform both the assessment of water body status and the development of management responses. However, the Directive does not provide prescriptive guidance on how it should be carried out and during the 1st river basin cycle, its application proved to be a real challenge. Incorporating ecosystem services as indicators of impacts, a participatory framework for pressure prioritisation is presented here. While various methods exist for engaging stakeholders in river basin management, the framework allows for the ecosystem approach to be operationalised through a risk assessment perspective, in the context of the pressure impact analysis. Applying this to a case study in England, we demonstrate how a ranking of pressures can be delivered based on stakeholders' perception of how the delivery of ecosystem services is affected by each pressure and incorporating their value as indicator of the magnitude of the impact. This approach allows for a more systematic way to effectively prioritise significant pressures and therefore select appropriate programmes of measures in line with the Directive's integrated river basin management paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative approaches to freshwater planning are increasingly popular. In principle, collaborative processes allow wider access to all forms of knowledge, referencing the socio-ecological system and stakeholder values. Relevant science must be more broadly defined. Here we explore how the roles and skillsets of scientists and the nature of science knowledge differ in collaborative freshwater planning compared to traditional consultative processes, to assist those designing and participating in such processes. Our observations are drawn from interviews with scientists, policy planners, facilitators and an indigenous adviser from project teams managing collaborative processes in four regions of New Zealand. Results indicate that the role of the scientist in a collaborative process is less top-down informer, and more facilitator of learning. Thus ‘front-room’ scientists involved in collaborative planning processes require a broader skill set than those required for a traditional consultative process. Humility and an ability to see other participants’ points of view are traits facilitating successful engagement with indigenous groups and stakeholders. More science  is needed on social, economic and cultural values. Risk and uncertainty can be tested using scenarios. Employing a wider range of science disciplines and scientists who act as integrators enables a greater sharing of local and indigenous knowledge even though such knowledge cannot always be tested or modelled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural resources in the semi-arid area of Tigray, northern Ethiopia, have been exploited for years. This has caused severe land degradation, which in turn led to recurrent drought and poverty. To recover the degraded lands, soil and water conservation (SWC) interventions were given a policy attention since the 1970s. Starting 1990s, SWC-based integrated catchment management (ICM) implementation programmes, complemented by conservation-based agricultural development strategy, have been implemented. Many studies on ICM interventions and associated benefits have been reported so far. However, as most of the studies were conducted on experimental plots/small catchment scale, none of them have attempted to report the achievements and lessons at large scale. Hence, a comprehensive review is needed to explore and publicize the interventions and associated benefits. This review was conducted through detailed analysis of evidence and facts from literature, field observations and farmers’ perceptions. The reviewed literature explicitly showed that ICM interventions have been successful in Tigray. Collective evidence has shown that most of the degraded landscapes are considerably restored, of which the soil fertility, availability of water, and rainfed and irrigated crop productivity have significantly increased over the last two decades. Consequently, environmental, ecological and socio-economic changes have been observed when compared to pre-implementation of ICM. Despite these achievements, some interventions often suffer from over-ambition, upward accountability and a top-down approach. Failures of Horeye and roof water harvesting, mismanagement of fertilisers, low survival of tree seedlings and lack of income from exclosures can be considered pitfalls that may affect the sustainability of the achievements. An important lesson drawn from Tigray is the participation of all stakeholders and the strong commitment and sense of ownership by the people and local government, which many projects lack worldwide. Observed experiences, achievements and implementation pitfalls can provide a lesson to other regions with similar agro-ecological, environmental and socio-economic setups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than half of surface water bodies in Europe are at less than good ecological status according to Water Framework Directive assessments, and diffuse pollution from agriculture remains a major, but not the only, cause of this poor performance. Agri-environmental policy and land management practices have, in many areas, reduced nutrient emissions to water. However, additional measures may be required in Ireland to further decouple the relationship between agricultural productivity and emissions to water, which is of vital importance given on-going agricultural intensification. The Source Load Apportionment Model (SLAM) framework characterises sources of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) emissions to water at a range of scales from sub-catchment to national. The SLAM synthesises land use and physical characteristics to predict emissions from point (wastewater, industry discharges and septic tank systems) and diffuse sources (agriculture, forestry, etc.). The predicted annual nutrient emissions were assessed against monitoring data for 16 major river catchments covering 50% of the area of Ireland. At national scale, results indicate that total average annual emissions to surface water in Ireland are over 2700 t yr − 1 of P and 82,000 t yr − 1 of N. The proportional contributions from individual sources show that the main sources of P are from municipal wastewater treatment plants and agriculture, with wide variations across the country related to local anthropogenic pressures and the hydrogeological setting. Agriculture is the main source of N emissions to water across all regions of Ireland. These policy-relevant results synthesised large amounts of information in order to identify the dominant sources of nutrients at regional and local scales, contributing to the national nutrient risk assessment of Irish water bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring water, food and energy security for a growing world population represents a 21st century catchment management challenge. Failure to recognise the complexity of interactions across ecosystem service provision can risk the loss of other key environmental and socioeconomic benefits from the natural capital of catchment systems. In particular, the ability of soil and water to meet human needs is undermined by uncertainties around climate change effects, ecosystem service interactions and conflicting stakeholder interests across catchments. This critical review draws from an extensive literature to discuss the benefits and challenges of utilising an ecosystem service approach for integrated catchment management (ICM). State-of-the-art research on ecosystem service assessment, mapping and participatory approaches is evaluated and a roadmap of the key short- and longer-term research needs for maximising landscape-scale ecosystem service provision from catchments is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a suite of actions for strengthening water governance in contexts with complex, multi-tiered arrangements. In doing so, we focus on the collective water policies and approaches of the United Kingdom (UK), including those of devolved governments, which confront a host of serious water-related challenges—from massive flooding of urban areas and agricultural lands, to pressure on aquifers from rising water demand and drought. Further complexity in addressing these challenges has emerged in the wake of the June 2016 vote to leave the European Union (EU), so-called ‘Brexit’, and the ensuing ‘separation process’ with uncertainties for institutional and governance arrangements to follow. We make ten proposals for improving and reinvigorating water policy in complex, multi-layered situations, and comment specifically on their application in the UK setting. These are: put in place a system-wide water policy; fully embrace community-led nested river basin planning and management; fully fund river basin planning and management; re-focus the policy framing; use best-available data and information; create conversational spaces and become a more water-literate society; mobilise people; support and sustain core community networks; underpin river basin plans with regulatory provisions and effective monitoring and enforcement; and address systemic institutional amnesia. Individually and collectively, we contend that these actions will have a marked effect on transforming the planning and management of water resources. A system-wide water policy that maintains and builds on the substantive biophysical and socio-economic benefits delivered through implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, together with the more recent Floods Directive, will galvanise stewardship of water in the UK. We urge more active engagement with and empowerment of the multiplicity of system ‘actors’, and highlight the role of non-government actors in a post-Brexit world as conduits for reaching out to and connecting directly with a wide range of water-related actors, especially across the EU. While attention to-date has focused on a plethora of specifically water-related projects, initiatives, plans and regulations, what is really needed is a systemic, long-term view of water resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dramatic decline in the integrity of Australian river systems in recent decades has seen the development of landcare and catchment management groups across the continent as the main facilitators of river rehabilitation works. There is growing concern for the need to develop adaptive management frameworks that assist informed decision making through the integration of social and geomorphological knowledge into catchment planning. In the Mulgrave River Catchment of northeastern Queensland, difficult management decisions have to be made with limited access to knowledge of natural processes and baseline geomorphological data. To date management decisions have been based almost exclusively on oral histories that state that point bars are accreting and the river is becoming shallower due to bank erosion. As a result bank stabilisation and removal of sand from within the channel have been recommended in the absence of any geomorphological assessments. This study compares oral histories of river bank erosion in the Mulgrave River with geomorphic evidence to highlight the need for integrated landscape scenario planning. The results of grain size analysis of bank and bed material from 27 locations, involving 47 samples, suggest that bank erosion cannot be delivering sediments to point bars. Furthermore, qualitative analysis of historic parish maps and aerial photographs shows that there has only been moderate bank erosion at three locations along the Mulgrave River since European settlement. The study demonstrates the important role that geomorphological investigations have for catchment management and the need for management frameworks that integrate geomorphological processes and landholder priorities for sustainable river management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enabling and enacting 'practical action' (i.e., purposeful and concerted collective action) in catchments is a key challenge in responding to a wide range of pressing catchment and natural resource management (NRM) issues. It is particularly a challenge in responding to 'wicked problems,' where generating action is not straightforward and cannot be brought about solely by any single actor, policy or intervention. This paper responds to the critical need to better understand how practical action can be generated in catchments, by conducting an in-depth empirical case study of efforts to manage nonpoint source (NPS) pollution in South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. SEQ has seen substantial concerted efforts to manage waterway and catchment issues over two decades, yet NPS pollution remains a major problem for waterway health. A novel framework was applied to empirically analyze practical action in three local catchment cases embedded within the broader SEQ region. The analysis focuses on 'enabling capacities' underpinning practical action in catchments. Findings reveal that capacities manifested in different ways in different cases, yet many commonalities also occurred across cases. Interplay between capacities was critical to the emergence of adaptive and contextual forms of practical action in all cases. These findings imply that in order to enable and enact practical action in catchments, it is vital to recognize and support a diversity of enabling capacities across both local and regional levels of decision making and action. This is likely to have relevance for other 'wicked' catchment and NRM problems requiring local responses within broader multiscalar regional problem situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meaningful engagement of diverse stakeholders is essential for ensuring support for science-based responses to complex watershed challenges. A collaborative network in the Davao river basins, in the Philippines, provides evidence of an approach that enabled integration of science into local decision making and increased bonding social capital between shared-interest groups. Insufficient attention towards bridging and linking social capital allowed bottlenecks between policy and implementation to persist. This ‘dark side’ of social capital was evidenced by entrenched sector positions and lower levels of trust between different interest groups. A social-learning approach is recommended to create new spaces for productive ‘bridging’ relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]