ABSTRACT
The challenge of managing water and other natural resources in a river basin has become increasingly more diffi cult as populations of people increase, demands on the natural resources on watershed landscapes increase, and new technologies become available. As a result, people either willingly or unwillingly degrade or destroy their environments at a more rapid rate than in the past. At the same time that the challenges for watershed managers increase, there are also opportunities to slow down or halt degradation and destruction of these often fragile landscapes and, by doing so, create sustainable environments in which people live and attempt to satisfy their basic needs. Several approaches to land stewardship have been put forth by people to meet these challenges. One approach is called integrated watershed management, another approach is called integrated river basin management, while still another approach is called integrated natural resources management or integrated water resource management when the focus is placed directly on the water resources involved (Gregersen et al. 2007). All of these approaches embrace similar ideas when it comes to fundamental principles of integrated landscape management. The authors of this chapter use the term integrated watershed management because a watershed is frequently considered the basic hydrologic unit for planning and implementing watershed management practices within a river basin.
