Understanding the hydrology of tropical Andean ecosystems through an Andean network of basins ; IAHS-AISH Publication

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. ; Cuenca