Watershed Management

Watershed management is aimed at land and water resources, and is applied to an area of land that drains to a defined location along a stream or river or water course.

Watershed management aims to care for natural resources in a way that supports human needs for water, food, fibre, energy, and habitation, while supporting other agreed attributes linked to recreation, aesthetics, and/or ecologic function. Because of these multidisciplinary concerns, the development of watershed-management strategies can involve complex scientific and public policy issues.

Watershed management is directly linked to soil conservation while maximising water harvesting.

There are many great examples of how large scale watershed management has changed the trajectory of counties, regions, previously degraded land and under-utilised arable land. Here is an example of participatory large scale watershed planning in Ethiopia.