Watershed analysis as a framework for implementing ecosystem management

Implementing ecosystem approaches to land use deci-sion making and land management requires new methods for link-ing science and planning. Greater integration is crucial becauseunder ecosystem management sustainable levels of resource useare determined by coupling management objectives to landscapecapabilities and capacities. Recent proposals for implementingecosystem management employ analyses organized at a hierarchyof scales for analysis and planning. Within this hierarchy, water-shed analysis provides a framework for delineating the spatial dis-tribution and linkages between physical processes and biologicalcommunities in an appropriate physical context: the watershed.Several such methods are currently in use in the western UnitedStates, and although there is no universal procedure for eitherimplementing watershed analysis or linking the results to plan-ning, there are a number of essential elements. A series of ques-tions on landscape-level ecological processes, history, condition, andresponse potential guide watershed analysis. Individual analysismodules are structured around answering these questions througha spatially-distributed, process-based approach. The planningframework linked to watershed analysis uses this information toeither manage environmental impacts or to identify desired condi-tions and develop land management prescriptions to achieve theseconditions. Watershed analysis offers a number of distinct advan-tages over contemporary environmental analyses for designing landmanagement scenarios compatible with balancing environmentaland economic objectives.
(KEY TERMS: watershed analysis; ecosystem management; water-shed management; environmental planning.)