soil
There are, no doubt, definite signs of the overexploitation of the natural environment and the thus resulting damage to the landscape in the Himalayas of Nepal. Hover, it is not the destruction which is the dominant aspect, but a type of mountain agriculture, based on a long tradition of farming experience, optimally adapted to geological factors. Some examples are regular crop rotation, the...
There is a growing global awareness that land degradation is as much a threat to environmental well–being as more obvious forms of damage, such as air and water pollution (e.g. Greenland & Szalbocs, 1994; Conacher, 2001). Although the source of land degradation is usually local, its effects often stretch for considerable distances from the source site. It can impact large areas and...
The concept of physiography integrates all of the main components of the natural environment, such as bedrock, surface drift deposits, landform, soils, climate, water, and plants and animals. This paper summarises the provisional physiographic zonation of Bhutan, based on soil survey fieldwork by the National Soil Services Centre, with some material incorporated from other environmental...
This paper is the results of a Soil Fertility Management (SFM) survey conducted in 1999 to determine the status and trends in soil fertility management and associated soil conditions in Bhutan in the face socio-economic development of the last four decades. While the traditional SFM systems based on the use of animal manures still dominate, the ability to maintain and sustain these indigenous...
An evaluation of the performance of a physically-based distributed model of a small Mediterranean mountain catchment is presented. This was carried out using hydrological response data, including measurements of runoff, soil moisture, phreatic surface level and actual evapotranspiration. A-priori model parameterisation was based as far as possible on property...
The controls on the spatial distribution of soil moisture include static and dynamic variables. The superposition of static and dynamic controls can lead to different soil moisture patterns for a given catchment during wetting, draining, and drying periods. These relationships can be further complicated in snow-dominated mountain regions where soil water input by precipitation is largely...
As a unique geological and geographical unit, the Tibetan Plateau dramatically impacts the world's environment and especially controls climatic and environmental changes in China, Asia and even in the Northern Hemisphere. Tibetan Plateau, therefore, provides a field laboratory for studying global change. With support from various agencies in the People's Republic of...
The Tibetan Plateau is a key region of land-atmosphere interactions, as it provides an elevated heat source to the middle-troposphere. The Plateau surfaces are typically characterized by alpine meadows and grasslands in the central and eastern part while by alpine deserts in the western part. This study evaluates performance of three state-of-the-art land surface...
Alpine meadow is one of the most widespread grassland types in the permafrost regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the transmission of coupled soil water heat is one of the most crucial processes influencing cyclic variations in the hydrology of frozen soil regions, especially under different vegetation covers. The present study assesses the impact of changes in...
A three-layer TOPMODEL is constructed by integrating diffusion wave approach into surface flow, soil moisture deficit into inter flow and exponential recession curve function into base flow. A subtropical mountainous watershed, Heng-Chi, and 22 rain storms with various rainfall types and wide ranges of total rainfall (from 81 to 1026 mm) were applied. The global best-...
Pages
