Watershed or basin area/catchment area is the basic unit of hydrological analysis. It is a geographical unit in which the hydrological cycle and its components can be analyzed. It is an important physiographic property that determines the volume or runoff to be expected from a given rainfall event that falls over the area (Bedient et. al., 2013).
10 Activities that can Negatively Affect our Watersheds
1. Extracting too much water both from surface waters and groundwater. It brings negative consequences for example, lower water level and depleted resources.
2. Pollution can harm water resources and aquatic ecosystems. Major pollutants include for instance organic matter and disease causing organisms from waste water discharges, fertilizers and pesticides running off from agricultural lands, acid rain resulting from air pollution, and heavy metals released by mining and industrial activities.
3. Climate change appears to increase existing pressures, for example in areas already suffering from water shortages. Land and mountain glaciers are shrinking more rapidly in recent years. Extreme weather events stemming from global warming, such as storms and floods, are likely to become more frequent and severe. However, based on current knowledge, scientists can only make general predictions about the impact of climate change on water resources.
4. Activities such as farming, clearing forests, building roads, and mining can put too much soil and particulate matter in rivers. This sediment can harm plants and animals by carrying toxic chemicals into the water, smothering fish eggs and small organisms used by fish as food, raising water temperature, and reducing the amount of sunlight penetrating the water.
5. Urban development – replacing farming communities with cities excessive non-permeable surfaces such as roads allows runoff to sweep chemicals easily into lakes and streams, collection of more waste in landfills, that can leak Increase in the extraction of groundwater.
6. Deforestation – leads to increased erosion, which could lead to an increase of waste materials that end up contaminating the freshwater supply
7. Sewage discharge, even pet waste can affect the health of rivers and streams
8. Excessive use of pesticides can create serious problems if materials wash away into water bodies.
9. Debris, such as grass clippings dumped into stream channels, robs water of oxygen and slows the flow.
10. Diminishing plant cover can cause erosion that harms water quality and destroys fish spawning beds.
10 Activities that can Promote the Health of our Watersheds
1. Conserve water every day. Take shorter showers, fix leaks & turn off the water when not in use.
2. Don’t pour toxic household chemicals down the drain; take them to a hazardous waste center.
3. Do not over apply fertilizers. Consider using organic or slow release fertilizers instead.
4. Recycle yard waste in a compost pile & use a mulching mower.
5. Use surfaces like wood, brick or gravel for decks & walkways, which allows rain to soak in and not run off.
6. Never pour used oil or antifreeze into the storm drain or the street.
7. Pick up after your dog, and dispose of the waste in the toilet or the trash.
8. Drive less—walk or bike; many pollutants in our waters come from car exhaust and car leaks.
9. Replace asphalt driveways with pavers. This allows for better drainage.
10. Add plants and trees to prevent erosion and use plants native to the area to reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides, which can seep into the ground and water supply.
Watershed-Related Study
Watershed Protection: A Project Focus
August 1995
The Watershed Protection Approach is a strategy for effectively protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems and protecting human health. This strategy has as its premise that many water quality and ecosystem problems are best solved at the watershed level rather than at the individual water body or discharger level. The Watershed Protection Approach has four major features: targeting priority problems, a high level of stakeholder involvement, integrated solutions that make use of the expertise and authority of multiple agencies, and measuring success through monitoring and other data gathering.
The Watershed Protection Approach accommodates the management and protection of ecosystems and human health at three levels: the state, the basin, and the watersheds within each basin. Some issues are best addressed at the watershed level, such as controlling nutrient loading to small lakes or restoring headwaters riparian habitat quality. Other issues may be best addressed at the basin level, such as phosphate detergent bans, wetlands mitigation banking, or nutrient trading. Still other activities and solutions are best implemented at the state level, including policies on toxics control or the operation of permit programs.
This document focuses on individual watershed projects. Watershed projects can be important components of the statewide approach that many state water quality programs use. These states have organized their traditional activities, such as permitting, planning, and monitoring, so that all water quality problems are dealt with in the context of very large drainage areas (river basins). Typically, each basin is studied, and a watershed plan developed, on a 5-yearcycle. A companion document, Watershed Protection: A Statewide Approach (EPA1995) discusses this way of doing business.
The EPA Office of Water prepared Watershed Protection: A Project Focus to promote watershed-level planning as envisioned under the Watershed Protection Approach. The document describes a logical process for planning and implementing watershed projects and presents some lessons learned in previous projects. The document emphasizes ecological integrity in watersheds by addressing chemical, physical, biological and habitat stressors in addition to the more traditional goal of protecting human health through chemical water quality criteria. It also encourages the targeting of watersheds for action and pooling resources and expertise with other government agencies and citizen groups.
References
Biodiversity. (n.d.). Retrieved September 6, 2020, from Clearwater:
https://www.clearwater.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Section-3.3-Biodiversity-12.30.pdf
Conservation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 6, 2020, from How Stuff Works: https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/conservation/issues/watershed2.htm
Protect our Water and Land. (n.d.). Retrieved September 7, 2020, from nature.org: https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/protect-water-and-land/land-and-water-stories/how-we-protect-watersheds/
Watershed. (n.d.). Retrieved September 7, 2020, from Allenis: https://www.allenisd.org/cms/lib/TX01001197/Centricity/Domain/1400/Watershed%20Kiser%202015.pdf
Watershed Protection. (n.d.). Retrieved September 7, 2020, from https://repositories.tdl.org/tamug-ir/bitstream/handle/1969.3/27856/11363-Watershed%20Protection-A%20Statewide%20Approach.pdf?sequence=1
Nice one