Ecohydrology issues are solved locally ... at the scale of the watershed

Salmon Creek Hilton NY

There is new thinking in the area characterized by 'ecosystems' which might be termed 'ecohydrology.' There are other terms as well including 'water nexus' which refer to the dynamics of land and water.

We're in a new, climate-shifting pattern of weather and its effects on earth. It is unmistakable, but we are players in this interaction and what we do counts.

"The solutions to the global water crisis can't be global," says Dr. Karen Bakker of the University of British Columbia's Program on Water Governance at the University's Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. Dr. Bakker teaches an edX course, Blue is the New Green. 

"The solutions are necessarily local. They're going to operate at the scale of the watershed."  If that is the case, I have been watching the evolution of 'local' to mean 'superseded' by more and more agencies. For instance, what happened in legislation and agreements decades ago dictates today:  "Lakewide Management Plans (LaMPs) stem from the 1987 amendments to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, originally signed by the United States and Canada in 1972. This historic agreement committed both countries 'to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem.' To meet this commitment, the two governments agreed to develop and implement LaMPs for open lake waters and Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) for specific geographic Areas of Concern (AOCs). LaMPs are intended to identify critical pollutants that affect beneficial uses of the lakes and to present strategies, recommendations and policy options to restore those beneficial uses. LaMPs for lakes Erie, Michigan, Ontario and Superior have been developed with guidance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Canada. Through an iterative approach, these documents will be updated and re-released every two years to incorporate new data and public input."  Overlapping and confusing . . . .