Hydrological investigations of forest disturbance and land cover impacts in South–East Asia: a review

Abstract

Investigations of land management impacts on hydrology are well developed in South–East Asia, having been greatly extended by national organizations in the last two decades. Regional collaborative efforts, such as the ASEAN–US watershed programme, have helped develop skills and long–running monitoring programmes. Work in different countries is significant for particular aspects: the powerful effects of both cyclones and landsliding in Taiwan, the significance of lahars in Java, of small–scale agriculture in Thailand and plantation establishment in Malaysia. Different aid programmes have contributed specialist knowledge such as British work on reservoir sedimentation, Dutch, Swedish and British work on softwood plantations and US work in hill–tribe agriculture. Much has been achieved through individual university research projects, including PhD and MSc theses. The net result is that for most countries there is now good information on changes in the rainfall–run–off relationship due to forest disturbance or conversion, some information on the impacts on sediment delivery and erosion of hillslopes, but relatively little about the dynamics and magnitude of nutrient losses. Improvements have been made in the ability to model the consequences of forest conversion and of selective logging and exciting prospects exist for the development of better predictions of transfer of water from the hillslopes to the stream channels using techniques such as multilevel modelling. Understanding of the processes involved has advanced through the detailed monitoring made possible at permanent field stations such as that at Danum Valley, Sabah.