Integrated Assessment of Scale Impacts of Watershed Intervention: Assessing Hydrogeological and Bio-physical Influences on Livelihoods

Integrated Assessment of Scale Impacts of Watershed Interventions is the outcome of a multi-disciplinary research team of social scientists, hydrologists (groundwater and surface water), modellers; and bio-physical scientists who have worked together over five years to develop an integrated model of the sustainability of biophysical, economic and social impacts of watersheds. Impacts of watershed interventions are assessed at upstream, mid-stream and downstream locations of two hydrological units that are characterised with differential bio-physical attributes. The editors propose that watershed interventions, when integrated with hydro-geology and bio-physical aspects, have greater influence on the resilience of the socio-ecological system. This book takes these aspects in to consideration and in the process provides insights in to watershed design and implementation.

• Integrates hydrogeology, bio-physical, and socioeconomic aspects of watersheds in a hydrological context
• Provides a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of watershed interventions
• Assesses the role of watershed interventions in enhancing household resilience
• Provides hydrological and socio-economic methodologies for design of sustainble watershed interventions including scale and institutional arrangements for implementing and sustaining watershed interventions

Dr. V. Ratna Reddy is the Director, Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management Institute, Hyderabad, India. He is an Economist specializing in Environmental economics and Natural Resource Management. He is a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation, Germany. He was a visiting fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK and at the School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK. His current research interests include natural resources and environmental economics, livelihoods analysis and agricultural policy. He has more than hundred publications in International and Indian Journals. He has published Six books, including User Valuation of Renewable Natural Resources: The User Perspective (Nova Science publishers Inc, New York) and Managing Water Resources from Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

Dr. Geoff Syme is Professor of Planning in the Centre for Planning at Edith Cowan University in Australia. Dr. Syme has 35 years of experience in social and interdisciplinary research on the effects of water management on societal outcomes. He has led large scale national and international research programs (>AUS 1.5 Mill) and has served as Research Director for CSIRO's Land and Water. He received a CSIRO medal for Research Excellence, and the Australian Water Association's Peter Hughes Water Award. He has published over 100 journal articles in a variety of disciplinary and multidisciplinary journals and is currently an Editor in Chief of the Journal of Hydrology (Elsevier). He regularly provides advice to National and International government and industry bodies. He provided substantial input to the National Water Commission's guide to incorporating ecological services into water planning. He is currently Project Leader on an ACIAR funded livelihoods based assessment of the effect of scale of Watershed Development in Andhra Pradesh, India.