Forests, Water and People in the Humid Tropics 2 Volume Paperback Set
Past, Present and Future Hydrological Research for Integrated Land and Water Management

Comprehensive review of hydrological and physiological functioning of tropical rain forests, for practitioners and scientists.

M. Bonell (Edited by), L. A. Bruijnzeel (Edited by)

9780521123983, Cambridge University Press

, published 17 December 2009

943 pages
25 x 32.5 x 7 cm, 2.45 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Forests, Water and People in the Humid Tropics is a comprehensive review of topical knowledge on humid tropical forest hydrological functioning … This is an impressive book. You get a real sense of the nature and breadth of the field, the importance of both empirical and conceptual approaches, the practical applications and the multidisciplinarity of managing those systems. … there is a real 'take home message' to the book, which is the need of holistic approaches to tropical land and water management with a focus on local community involvement. … excellent and very well-written … there is something in Forests, Water and People in the Humid Tropics for everyone.' Progress in Physical Geography

Forests, Water and People in the Humid Tropics is a comprehensive review of the hydrological and physiological functioning of tropical rain forests, the environmental impacts of their disturbance and conversion to other land uses, and optimum strategies for managing them. The book brings together leading specialists in such diverse fields as tropical anthropology and human geography, environmental economics, climatology and meteorology, hydrology, geomorphology, plant and aquatic ecology, forestry and conservation agronomy. The editors have supplemented the individual contributions with invaluable overviews of the main sections and provide key pointers for future research. Specialists will find authenticated detail in chapters written by experts on a whole range of people-water-land use issues, managers and practitioners will learn more about the implications of ongoing and planned forest conversion, while scientists and students will appreciate a unique review of the literature.

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Current Trends and Perspectives on People/Land-use/Water Issues: 1. Trends and patterns of tropical land use change
2. The myth of efficiency through market economics: a biophysical analysis of tropical economies, especially with respect to energy, forests and water
3. Impacts of land cover change in the Brazilian Amazon: a resource manager's perspective
4. Forest people and changing tropical forestland use in tropical Asia
5. People in tropical forests: problem or solution?
6. Useful myths and intractable truths: the politics of the link between forests and water in Central America
7. Land use, hydrological function and economic valuation
8. Water resources management policy responses to land cover change in Southeast Asian river basins
9. Community-based hydrological and water quality assessments: a case study from the Philippines
Part II. Hydrological Processes in Undisturbed Forest: 10. An overview of the meteorology and climatology of the humid tropics
11. Synoptic and mesoscale rain producing systems in the humid tropics
12. Climatic variability in the tropics
13. Controls on evaporation in lowland tropical rain forest
14. Runoff generation in tropical forests
15. Erosion and sediment yield in the humid tropics
16. Rain forest mineral nutrition: the 'black box' and a glimpse inside it
17. Hydrology of tropical wetland forests: recent research results from Sarawak peatswamps
18. Tropical montane cloud forest: a unique hydrological case
Part III. Forest Disturbance, Conversion and Recovery: 19. Natural disturbances and the hydrology of humid tropical forests
20. Spatially-significant effects of selective tropical forestry on water, nutrient and sediment flows: a modelling-supported review
21. Effects of shifting cultivation and forest fire
22. Soil and water impacts during forest conversion and stabilisation to new land use
23. Large-scale hydrological impacts of tropical forest conversion
24. Forest recovery in the humid tropics: changes in vegetation structure, nutrient pools and the hydrological cycle
25. The hydrological impacts of reforestation of grasslands and of degraded forest in the tropics
26. The potential of agroforestry for sustainable land and water management
Part IV. New Methods for Evaluating Effects of Land-Use Change: 27. Remote sensing tools in tropical forest hydrology: new sensors
28. Detecting change in river flow series
29. How to choose an appropriate catchment model
30. The disaggregation of monthly streamflow for ungauged sub-catchments of a gauged irrigated catchment in Northern Thailand
31. Parsimonious spatial representation of tropical soils within dynamic rainfall-runoff model
32. Isotope tracers in catchment hydrology in the humid tropics
33. Process-based erosion modelling: promises and progress
34. Impacts of forest conversion on the ecology of streams in the humid tropics
Part V. Critical Appraisals of Best Management Practices: 35. Controlling catchment impacts of timber harvesting
36. Minimising the hydrological impact of forest harvesting in Malaysia's rain forests
37. Red flags of warning in land clearing
38. From nature to nurture: soil and water management for rainfed steeplands in the humid tropics
Conclusion: Forests-Water-People – an emerging view.

Subject Areas: Social impact of environmental issues [RNT], Forests, rainforests [RGBL], Limnology [freshwater RBKF], Ecological science, the Biosphere [PSAF]