(1) Restoration Hydrology

Forest restoration has generated a wide range of benefits–not only forest quantity and quality, but enhanced food security, improved air and water quality, climate change resilience and more. It has also become an area of increasing interest and activity in recent years, ranging from small-scale efforts by NGO’s and communities to large-scale international commitments. Despite of the positive effect of forest restoration, the impacts of forest cover expansion on surface and ground water quantity are still controversial. The debate continues over whether forest restoration can help recover water provision functions and improve surface water yields in watersheds.

With the consideration of the hydrological services/disservices of large-scale forest restoration, one of the top issues is the hydrological regimes/flow components in relation to forest dynamics. Another key issue is the co-evolvement of hydrological niche and forest dynamics. They are crucial components in this topic, and importantly can provide practical guidance to forest restoration from the hydrological purposes. For the long-run, the influence of afforestation on water yield would change with time. It’s imperative to explore the non-stationary forest and water interactions over/across difference landscapes. Given the benefits of forest restoration, improving our understanding of in what condition forest restoration can result in water provisioning is crucial to help improve positive outcomes and prevent unintended consequences.

(2) Forest hydrology at larger scale: forest climate feedbacks

The recognition that interactions and feedbacks between forests, climate and water need to be considered at all spatial and temporal scales. The extreme meteorological events are a source of growing concern for climate change sensitive areas, such as urban areas, cold regions and water-limited regions etc.. Moreover, due to the spatial heterogeneity, the hydrological function of the forest ecosystem may vary across different scales. To inform management of water resources across different landscape scales, the forest hydrology at large watershed, regional and continental scales need to be quantified. Climate change could alter patterns of plant production at larger spatial scales through redistribution of water resources. It may also influence the biogeochemistry cycling (e.g. N, C) in forest-water relations at multiple scale. Vice versa, forest can modify mass circulation and energy balance. Therefore, forests of different scales have been proved to influence climate to various extent. Therefore, this theme would highlight the topics that link forest, water and climate feedbacks across large scales.

(3) The effects of forest disturbance on hydrologic process and watershed management

Physical actions of forest operations will change the forest by altering structure, composition, condition. They can also meet society’s needs for clean air and water, forest products, wildlife, recreation, and other benefits. Except for the management approaches, forest operations also include the development and use of the infrastructure, primarily roads and trails that support value recovery. There have been concerns of possible impacts of forest operation activities, climate-change-related fires, and pests and diseases on hydrologic process, from the perspective of both water quantity and quality. Therefore, the potential effects of forest management activities (e.g., harvest operations, road building, reforestation, pest control management) on surface and groundwater hydrology is crucial for forests role in climate change mitigation has been the focal point of considerable research. The research history of this topic is dated long back, but new understandings are still urgently needed for many organizations to support on-ground practices.

(4) Managing forests for water ecosystem services

Recognition of region-specific synergies and trade-offs in the forest-water-society nexus.Forests are increasingly being recognized for the products, services, and benefits they can provide. The stability of forest ecosystem services provision strongly depends on the forest-water relations. However, facing climate change and human disturbance, forest ecosystems are under stress worldwide. Deforestation is accelerating at an alarming pace and leads to land degradation, losses of biodiversity, forest structure, ecological function, and services. Therefore, we need to improve the science and practices that currently shape our framework of forest-water management to reach the goal of sustainable provision of ecosystem services. This theme will mainly discuss the management strategies aiming at enhancing the regulating services of the forest ecosystem, such as soil conservation, water provision, carbon sequestration, avoided sedimentation, flood mitigation, nutrient regulation, and habitat provisioning. We will also explore forest's role in water and energy cycles and their implications for disaster risk reduction and climate change mitigation.

(5) Research and Management Tools for forest-water nexus

Forests must be managed with new policy and institutional arrangements (e.g. the Paris Climate Agreement, the Forest Landscape Restoration strategies) and innovations that may result in forest cover change across millions of hectares. Given the impact of forests on the water cycle at different scales, the purpose of this session is to advance the establishment process of forest management from the aspect of the sustainable water cycle. This session will focus on approaches that support the management decision-making process, such as novel and traditional approaches in forest water studies (isotope, remote sensing, AI, machine learning etc.), adaptive modeling/managing of forest and water interactions that help the monitoring of forest and water resources at different scales, etc..

(6) Impacts of Climate Change on Forest Ecohydrology and Management