Development May Result in the Loss of Forested Watersheds, Lowering Water Quality and Increasing Water Treatment Costs

Water is essential for life, and forests are essential for water.

Forests play a vital role in providing and regulating water resources and buffering against extreme weather and climate change.

However, forests are also under threat from various factors, such as development, deforestation, degradation, and drought.

Understanding the complex and nuanced relationship between forests and water is crucial for sustainable forest management and water security.

Forests as water users and providers

(Photo : JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images)

Forests are important water users and providers. Trees use water at different rates depending on their age, species, climate, and soil conditions.

Forests also intercept, store, and release water through various processes, such as evaporation, transpiration, infiltration, and runoff.

These places can influence the quantity and quality of water available for human and ecological needs.

For example, forests can filter sediments and pollutants from the water in the soil before it reaches a water source, such as a stream, lake, or river, as per Phys.org.

It can also reduce soil erosion and prevent landslides by stabilizing slopes and enhancing soil structure.

Forests provide a large part of the world's drinking water, especially in mountainous regions where many major rivers originate. For example, the forests of the Uluguru Mountains supply drinking water to the 2.5 million residents of the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam.

Similarly, 1.3 million people in Quito and 20 million in Mexico City drink water from mountain forests. Forests also support biodiversity and ecosystem services that depend on water, such as fisheries, agriculture, and hydroelectricity.

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Forests as water regulators and buffers

Forests are also important for regulating the water cycle and mitigating the impacts of climate change on water resources, as per ScienceDirect.

The woods can affect the local and regional climate by modifying the temperature, humidity, and precipitation patterns.

Forests can also buffer against extreme weather events, such as floods and droughts, by regulating the surface and groundwater flows.

Moreover, forests can help prevent desertification and salinization by maintaining soil moisture and reducing evaporation.

Conversely, forests are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as reduced or changed precipitation patterns, increased temperatures, and water stress.

Forest managers should aim to reduce the vulnerability of forests to water stress and increase their role in ensuring a continuous water supply.

However, forests are facing multiple threats from human activities that affect their water functions. The loss of forest cover due to development can significantly degrade water quality by increasing sedimentation, nutrient runoff, organic carbon transport and pollutant loading.

The effects of forest management practices, such as harvesting, thinning, fertilization and drainage can also impair water quality by altering the hydrological processes and biogeochemical cycles in forest ecosystems.

The impacts of forest disturbance on water quality can vary depending on the type, intensity, extent and timing of disturbance, as well as the characteristics of the watershed (e.g., slope, soil type) and the climate (e.g., precipitation regime).

Therefore, it is important to adopt best management practices (BMPs) that can reduce or prevent the negative effects of forest activities on water quality.

BMPs include measures such as minimizing soil disturbance during harvesting operations; maintaining riparian buffer zones along streams; applying fertilizers at appropriate rates and times; controlling erosion with vegetation cover or mulching; restoring degraded forests with native species; monitoring water quality parameters; and adapting management strategies to changing climatic conditions 24.

Forests have a complex and nuanced relationship with water that must be understood and managed to ensure sustainable forest management and water security.

Forests can provide and regulate water resources while buffering against extreme weather and climate change impacts.

However, forests are also threatened by human activities that can impair their water functions.

Therefore, it is essential to implement BMPs that can conserve forest cover and landscape patterns while maintaining or enhancing water quality.

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