Forest Hydrology: Processes, Management and Assessment

Forests cover about a third of the world's land surface area. They represent a distinct biotic community, provide a living for many millions of people, and provide fresh water to sustain communities. Forests capture part of the precipitation and pass the remainder into the soil. Some of this is then passed back to the atmosphere along with some to streams as a regulated outflow. Forest cover is generally the preferred land-use for clean water supplies, recreation, tourism, and other ecosystem benefits around the world. In many cases the value of the water exceeds the value of other forest products.The discipline "forest hydrology" was developed in the 19th and 20th Century with the aim of putting such water cycling processes into a scientific framework incorporating forest watershed management. The 21st Century has seen proliferations of new technologies that have changed society, our living environment, and this discipline. Forests are also facing unprecedented threats from land conversion, fire, drought, and the changing climate. The discipline of forest hydrology must address these issues with innovation and new ideas.The 2nd Edition of Forest Hydrology:- Presents advances of understanding of key forest hydrologic processes (particularly evapotranspiration)- Presents cutting-edge thinking and assessments in global forest hydrology, including state-of-the-art modelling and methodologies- Presents innovative findings about the impacts of forest fires on the rate of catchment formation and how past fires have led to the catchments we take for granted- Describes the latest challenges facing forest hydrology, such as increased occurrences of disturbance due to extreme precipitation and floods, drought, disease, fire, and their association with climate change- Reviews the latest perceptions of the value of forested catchments compared to alternatives such as desalination plants- Is written by an internationally renowned team of scientists, engineers, and forest managers to give a well-rounded view of the subjectThis book is essential reading for graduate students, professionals, land managers, practitioners, and researchers with a good understanding of the basic principles of hydrology and hydrologic processes.

Dr Bren is an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. His basic training was in forestry and forestry science. He earned a PhD in the hydrology of a small mountain stream from the University of Melbourne and then taught and researched at this institution for some decades. Work included paired watershed studies, geometry of stream buffer strips and the hydrology of river red gum forests along Australia's River Murray. He lives in the Victorian provincial city of Ballarat.

Dr. Devendra M Amatya has been working as a Research Hydrologist at the USDA Forest Service since 2002 after moving from North Carolina State University as a faculty member. He has nearly 30 years of experience in forest hydrology and water management research. His primary research interests are in ecohydrologic and water quality studies on low-gradient landscapes including forested wetlands and impacts on them due to increasing threats of land use change and climate variability and change including extreme events using monitoring and modeling approaches. He has made numerous invited/volunteered presentations at both professional society and scientific conferences, meetings, and symposia, nationally and internationally, and also authored/coauthored more than 250 publications in refereed journals, proceedings, book chapters, and technical bulletins/reports. He is serving on editorial boards of Journal of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, Journal of American Water Resources Association, and Journal of South Carolina Water Resources (fomer editor).

Dr. Thomas Williams is an Emeritus Professor of Forest Hydrology at the Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science of Clemson University. He retired in 2008 after thirty-three years doing research on aspects of coastal forest hydrology. Hydrology of high-water-table soils and tidal forested wetlands has been his focus. Since retirement he has served on the Editorial board of the South Carolina Water Resources Journal

Dr. Carmen de Jong is Full Professor at the University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France. Her basic training is in Hydrology and Geomorphology. She earned a PhD in fluvial geomorphology of mountain streams in the USA and Germany from the Free University of Berlin and a habilitation in floods and droughts in the High Atlas and Alps from the University of Bonn, Germany. She works on climate change and anthropogenic impacts on hydrology of forested catchments in the Black Forest and Palatinate Forest in Germany and Vosges in France.

Dr. Ge Sun is Research Hydrologist with the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center, USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station, and Adjunct Professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. Dr. Sun served as associate editors and edited ten special issues for several hydrology and ecology journals including Journal of American Water Resources Association, Forests, and Ecological Processes. He received several distinguished awards from various agencies, including Fellow of the American Water Resources Association and the US Forest Service Chief's Distinguished Science Awards. He received a Ph.D. in Forest Hydrology and Watershed Management from the University of Florida (1995).