INTEGRTED WATERSHED MANAGEMENT Soil bioengineering techniques Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) is the process of managing human activities

and natural resources on a watershed basis. This approach allows us to protect important water resources, while at the same time addressing the critical issues such as the current and future impacts of rapid growth and climate change. Our activities on the land impact the health and sustainability of natural resources and can threaten how much water we have available as well as how well we can adapt to the impacts of climate change. The best way to protect resources is on a watershed basis using an integrated watershed management. This approach allows us to address multiple issues and objectives and enables us to plan within a very complex and uncertain environment. Freshwater resources such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs and wetlands are suffering from various problems amongst them pollution originated from point and non-point sources; shore erosion and habitat lose due to construction and other unsustainable human activities and unsustainable practices. To stop and advert this trend there is a need to develop proper planning and management approaches within the context of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). Integrated Water Resource Management as defined by the Global Water Partnership (GWP) is a process that considers the co-ordination of development and management of water, land and related resources to enhance economic and social welfare without jeopardizing the sustainability of the ecosystem. Ecohydrology together with the application of Phytotechnologies consider the basic principles of IWRM in the way they are practice.

The need for a new approach for integrated river basin management The Worls rivers basins has been dramatically modified due to human disturbances such as agriculture, grazing, deforestation, and urbanisation. These disturbances also have been changing the Earths albedo and, consequently, its surface energy budget, affecting local and regional climate, and, ultimately, the amount and quality of water in the river basins of the world. At the beginning of 21st century, the increasing human population and its aspirations has become a major factor in progressive environmental degradation on the global scale. Degradation of biological structures and ecological processes means a reduction in the ecosystems carrying capacity. As a consequence, during the next 30 to 60 years, the human imperatives may clash with the carrying capacity of global environment. Such a clash would be nothing less than catastrophic for humanity. It is a well-known phenomenon in ecological handbooks that overpopulation, and exhaustion of the resources upon which the population depends, leads to population collapse. This phenomenon appears in many types of populations and across a range of scales, from protozoans in an experimental bottle to deer population introduced to a coastal island. The final effect of such experiments is always the same - over-exploitation of biotic resources lead to sharp decline of population size.

It is worth underlining, however, that the carrying capacity of each ecological system within the mega-ecosystem -the biogeosphere we know as Earth - is not fixed. It can be reduced by pollution and over-exploitation of resources (e.g., through harvesting of biomass, or pollution of water). Likewise, it can be restored and expanded through good husbandry and management (Figure 1.1). The optimistic aspect of this story is that if, during periods of sharply increased population growth, the carrying capacity of the environment is increased, the population possesses additional time during which homeostatic regulatory mechanisms may be established to achieve a state of dynamic equilibrium between the density of the population and the carrying capacity of ecosystem. One example of such homeostatic feedback regulation is well known. In case of fish populations, when food resources become limiting, females do not produce eggs. This results in a reduction in the population and the recreation of an equilibrium between resource availability, necessary to sustain the population, and the population itself. Thus, the question becomes one of providing an answer to the question of how to achieve and sustain this equilibrium, or, better yet, of how to expand the carrying capacity of global ecosystem to sustain an increasing population? One of the fundamental tenets of the concept of sustainable development is the maintenance of an homeostatic equilibrium within the ecosystem. Over-exploitation, or biotic structure degradation, alters the ecosystem processes to the point where the ecosystems ability to produce desired resources is seriously diminished. A decline in water quality and biodiversity, observed at the global scale in both developed and developing countries, has provided sobering evidence that a purely "mechanistic" and fragmented approach to water resources management, based largely on hydrotechnical solutions such as application of sewage treatment technologies and regulation of hydrological processes through flood control and drought mitigation measures, has been less than successful. While elements of this approach remain valid and viable, a technical solution alone is clearly insufficient for the sustainable use of the worlds water resources.
Demonstrating phytoetechnology pattern whereby through the manipulation of the biota, landscape and hydrology the possibilities of augmenting the ecosystem resilience to changes while also augmenting opportunities for interaction. Phytotechnologies on the other hand, are based on the use of vegetation and their natural services which complement Ecohydrology as through their application erosion of shorelines can be reduced, the soil and landscape could be preserved and recuperated, pollution prevented and controlled as well as the habitats restored just to mention a few applications.

Soil bioengineering techniques Soil bioengineering is an applied science that combines the use of engineering design principles with biological and ecological concepts to construct and assure the survival of living plant communities that will naturally control erosion and flooding. Horticultural principles are applied to establish the plant communities. Engineering design principles are applied to build structures that will help protect the communities as they grow to maturity and function as they would in their natural settings. Construction Guidelines

Live material Live branches should be from 0.5 to 2 in. in diameter, and long enough to touch the undisturbed soil of the back of the slump and extend slightly from the rebuilt streambank. Inert material Wooden stakes should be 5 to 8 ft. long, depending on the depth of the particular slump or hole being repaired, and made from poles that are either 3 to 4 in. in diameter or 2- by 4-ft. lumber. Live posts can be substituted. Installation Dig out the bottom at or below the stream or lake bed. Place a layer of rock and/or root wad in combination on the bottom. Cover with 2 to 4 in. of soil. Start at the lowest point of the slump or hole, drive the poles vertically 3 to 4 ft. into the ground. Set them 1 to 1.5 ft. apart. Place an initial layer of living branches 4- to 6-in. thick in the bottom of the hole between the vertical stakes and perpendicular to the slope face (see illustration). Place them in a crisscross configuration with the growing tips oriented toward the slope face. The basal ends of the branches should touch the undisturbed soil at the back of the hole. Follow each layer of branches with a layer of compacted soil to ensure soil contact with the branches.Wet the soil. Install subsequent layers of branches with the basal ends lower than the growing tips of the branches. Conform to the existing slope. At final installation branches should protrude only slightly. Key in this technique to the bank or end at an existing tree or rock outcrop. Control or divert water if the original stream bank damage was caused by water flowing over the bank. If this is not done, it is likely that erosion will occur on either or both sides of the new branch packing installation.