Understanding the hydrology of tropical Andean ecosystems through an Andean network of basins
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Date
2009-03-30
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Abstract
During the last decade several initiatives aiming at conserving and protecting the water provision
of Andean ecosystems have started. However, their application have faced a number of limitations from the
technical side mainly due to the lack of knowledge of hydrological processes and Andean-specific
developed and tested hydrological models for scenario analyses. The large variability found in ecosystems,
climates and geomorphological settings makes hydrological research a complex task and answers to these
societal problems therefore may take too long, unless a well coordinated collaboration between research
centres, NGO’s and local governments take place. This manuscript outlines the goals of a regional initiative
on participatory-based networking of data monitoring; describes how researchers can help local and regional
stakeholders and vice-versa with data collection, processing, storage and dissemination; highlights the
benefits of the collaboration for the scientific community and policy makers; and proposes measures to make
the collaboration effective and sustainable.
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Keywords
Mountain Hydrology, Andean Ecosystems, Paramo, Montane And Cloud Forests, Participatory Environmental Monitoring, Andes