FOLENS E-Letter
My Lecture for FOLENS (FOLENS E-News No.1/ September 2010):
Learning watershed perspectives:
Regional Environmental Conservation Planning
Department of International Environmental and Agricultural Science
Takashi Gomi
E-mail: gomit(at)cc.tuat.ac.jp (Replace '(at)' with @)
Web: http://www.tuat.ac.jp/~gomit/
This lecture series focuses primarily on soil and water conservation and watershed management. Students with various background including hydrology, biogeochemistry, biology, and sociology are taking this course work. Because diverse knowledge such as water resources management, geomorphology, soil erosion control, ecology, regional planning, and politics are necessary for watershed management, it is very effective for leaning and discussing about watershed management.
The lecture is consisted by two major components; (a) basic knowledge of watershed processes; and (b) framework of watershed management. For the first part of the class, we learn about hydrologic and geomorphic processes (soil erosion, landslide, debris flow) at the watershed scales. Linkages among hydrologic and geomorphic processes with respect to the effect of regional land use are emphasized. Timely topics related to sustainable land management and natural hazard assessments are included. Students are encouraged to work on practical issues on watershed management in each class. We also conduct small laboratory experiment to learn about hydrological processes.
In the second part of the lecture, students learn about framework of watershed management. Groups of students, which are consisted by various backgrounds of students, work on the practical watershed management based on available information and data. Groups of students discuss and learn about; (1) indentifying issues and locations related to environmental concerns and resources management within a given watershed; (2) qualitative and quantitative evaluation of data related to the environmental concerns; (3) examining the accuracy of data; (4) expected future perspectives of watershed resources and conservation; and (5) suggestion of watershed management. Because each group is composed by students with various backgrounds, students can learn how to express own opinions to the other disciplinary and understand different perspectives that occurred within a watershed.
For watershed management, arrangements of various opinions among various stakeholders and multiple disciplinary are essential. Scientists and managers with various backgrounds may have different ideas for watershed management. Throughout the lectures and exercises, I hope students can develop basic knowledge for watershed management and expand their ability for adjusting and coordinating opinion and knowledge for more comprehensive watershed management.