ABSTRACT
Management of agricultural, forested, range, wetland, and urban land plays an integral part in influencing soil and water quality within a watershed. Non-point-source pollution of blue waters, streams, rivers, groundwater, lakes, wetlands, and estuaries is now linked to the management practices used in these ecosystems. In this article, we present a brief overview of the role of soil and water quality in sustainable management of watersheds. Sustainable watershed management will require integration of information from diverse domains (e.g., physical, biogeochemical, economic, social, cultural, and demographic) at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and development of predictive tools across environmental, hydrologic, economic, and social gradients. Soils in the watershed play a unique role in regulating air and water quality, plant productivity, carbon sequestration, production and consumption of greenhouse gases, and climate. Management strategies used to reduce pollutant loads from watersheds should seek to improve soil quality as a first step to improve water quality. Changes in practices by the user are needed to implement new solutions to improve quantity and quality of water resources. Current educational programs in India and other developing countries are not adequate for watershed technology transfer to the user. Linkage between research and outreach must be improved for effective implementation of watershed management practices. Watershed-management plans should be viewed as the starting point, but not the end of management cycle, thus following the concept of adaptive management. Science and policy must function together for watershed management to be successful.
