Supporting Watershed Interventions through Participatory Monitoring in the Tropical Andes

Thursday, 9 June 2016
Bert De Bievre1, Boris F Ochoa-Tocachi2,3, Wouter Buytaert4, Luis Acosta5, Junior Gil Ríos2 and Regional Initiative for Hydrological Monitoring of Andean Ecosystems, (1)Fondo para la Protección del Agua - FONAG, Quito, Ecuador, (2)Consorcio para el Desarrollo Sostenible de la Ecorregión Andina (CONDESAN), Cuencas Andinas, Lima, Peru, (3)Imperial College London, Civil and Environmental Engineering, London, United Kingdom, (4)Imperial College London, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Grantham Institute for Climate Change, London, United Kingdom, (5)Superintendencia Nacional de Servicios de Saneamiento, Lima, Peru
Abstract:
The Tropical Andes are hotspots for ecosystem services provision and environmental change. The naturally high diversity of geographical and climatic characteristics result in similarly variable and non-stationary hydrometeorological features. These characteristics have an equally important effect on the magnitude and flow variability of discharge into rivers that support down-stream livelihoods. However, this region suffers from extensive data scarcity and an acute lack of understanding on how to use ecosystem services to support human development. These issues, in combination with rapid changes in land use and climate plus increasing population and water demand, put intense pressures on water resources.

Emerging from a local awareness about the need for better information on ecosystem services, a partnership of academic and non-governmental institutions pioneered in participatory hydrological monitoring. The Regional Initiative for Hydrological Monitoring of Andean Ecosystems (iMHEA) was established in 2009. It is an example of a bottom-up initiative that contrasts with the traditional national hydrometeorological networks, which provide inadequate coverage of remote headwater areas and don’t focus on ecosystem services affected negatively by human interventions or positively by restoration efforts. As a result of this lack of “official” data, the hydrological impacts of land use as well as that of abundant attempts to recover hydrological performance, such as ecosystem management, water conservation strategies or watershed investments, have not been evaluated properly.

Using a design based on a trading-space-for-time approach, over 30 catchments are currently being monitored for precipitation and streamflow by 18 local stakeholders in 15 sites located in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela. This network has started to deliver useful information to multi-scale and multi-stakeholder decision making activities. Here, we highlight the efforts of building the initiative, the methodology with which such a diverse participatory network has been operating, and some of the most relevant milestones and breakthroughs. Lastly, we also discuss some of the major remaining challenges and perspectives in the scientific, technological and social domains.

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