Land–water interactions: The evidence base for catchment planning and management

So widespread and unhelpful is the mythology of land-use impacts on hydrology, particularly deforestation, that the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has emphasised the need for less tendentious headlines than, for example, ‘Deforestation in the Himalayas blamed for killer flood’; its view is that, ‘Given that impacts of land use on water resources are the result of complex interactions between diverse site-specific factors and offsite conditions, standardized types of responses will seldom be adequate’ (FAO, 2002, p. 1). Perhaps a more revealing and legitimate headline was that which appeared in April 2001, ‘Hillside homes add to Malaysian flood woes’: we need to consider the full picture of development before inferring hydrological impacts. Incidentally, the FAO has set up a division of its global operation entitled ‘Land and Water Development’.