Small Watershed Comprehensive Development
(China)
Integrated administration/control of small basin
Description
Controlling a small watershed comprehensively with structural, vegetative, management, and agronomic measures based on harvesting area of ground water and underground water, to improve the production and conservation of land.
Over several decades of SWC practices, a successful experience of SWC has been concluded, that is Small Watershed Comprehensive Development. The main aim is regarded a small watershed as a control unit for soil and water conservation. The approach is to control soil and water loss comprehensively by structural measure combining vegetative, agronomic and management measures. Specifically:
1. Agronomic method/measure: contour cultivation, area closure, and green manure
2. Vegetative method/measure: plant trees, grass, grass strip, windbreaks and reforestation
3. Structural method/measures: terrace, ands, small reservoir, and dams
4. Land use management/measure: grazing, area closure, and land use change
Location
Location: Hubei, China
No. of Technology sites analysed:
Geo-reference of selected sites
Spread of the Technology: evenly spread over an area (39.8 km²)
In a permanently protected area?:
Date of implementation: more than 50 years ago (traditional)
Type of introduction
-
through land users' innovation
-
as part of a traditional system (> 50 years)
-
during experiments/ research
-
through projects/ external interventions
Classification of the Technology
Main purpose
-
improve production
-
reduce, prevent, restore land degradation
-
conserve ecosystem
-
protect a watershed/ downstream areas – in combination with other Technologies
-
preserve/ improve biodiversity
-
reduce risk of disasters
-
adapt to climate change/ extremes and its impacts
-
mitigate climate change and its impacts
-
create beneficial economic impact
-
create beneficial social impact
Land use
Land use mixed within the same land unit: Ja - Agroforestry
-
Cropland
- Annual cropping: cereals - wheat (winter), rice
Number of growing seasons per year: 3
-
Forest/ woodlandsTree types: Pinus species (pine)
Water supply
-
rainfed
-
mixed rainfed-irrigated
-
full irrigation
Purpose related to land degradation
-
prevent land degradation
-
reduce land degradation
-
restore/ rehabilitate severely degraded land
-
adapt to land degradation
-
not applicable
Degradation addressed
-
soil erosion by water - Wt: loss of topsoil/ surface erosion
-
chemical soil deterioration - Cn: fertility decline and reduced organic matter content (not caused by erosion)
SLM group
-
surface water management (spring, river, lakes, sea)
SLM measures
-
agronomic measures - A7: Others
-
vegetative measures - V2: Grasses and perennial herbaceous plants
-
structural measures - S1: Terraces, S5: Dams, pans, ponds, S7: Water harvesting/ supply/ irrigation equipment
-
management measures - M1: Change of land use type
Technical drawing
Technical specifications
Establishment and maintenance: activities, inputs and costs
Calculation of inputs and costs
- Costs are calculated:
- Currency used for cost calculation: USD
- Exchange rate (to USD): 1 USD = n.a
- Average wage cost of hired labour per day: 1.70
Most important factors affecting the costs
Much money is needed to build terraces if hill slope is steeper.
Establishment activities
-
plant fence beside terrace (Timing/ frequency: 1965)
-
terrace (Timing/ frequency: 1968)
-
small reservior (Timing/ frequency: 1959)
Maintenance activities
-
conserving soil and planting crops (Timing/ frequency: seeding season / annual)
-
improve fertilizer (Timing/ frequency: winter, spring /)
-
increase fertilizer (Timing/ frequency: seeding season /)
-
Cutting fence, planting (Timing/ frequency: fall /annual)
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terrace (Timing/ frequency: leisure/annual)
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small reservior (Timing/ frequency: winter/annual)
Natural environment
Average annual rainfall
-
< 250 mm
-
251-500 mm
-
501-750 mm
-
751-1,000 mm
-
1,001-1,500 mm
-
1,501-2,000 mm
-
2,001-3,000 mm
-
3,001-4,000 mm
-
> 4,000 mm
Agro-climatic zone
-
humid
-
sub-humid
-
semi-arid
-
arid
Specifications on climate
n.a.
Slope
-
flat (0-2%)
-
gentle (3-5%)
-
moderate (6-10%)
-
rolling (11-15%)
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hilly (16-30%)
-
steep (31-60%)
-
very steep (>60%)
Landforms
-
plateau/plains
-
ridges
-
mountain slopes
-
hill slopes
-
footslopes
-
valley floors
Altitude
-
0-100 m a.s.l.
-
101-500 m a.s.l.
-
501-1,000 m a.s.l.
-
1,001-1,500 m a.s.l.
-
1,501-2,000 m a.s.l.
-
2,001-2,500 m a.s.l.
-
2,501-3,000 m a.s.l.
-
3,001-4,000 m a.s.l.
-
> 4,000 m a.s.l.
Technology is applied in
-
convex situations
-
concave situations
-
not relevant
Soil depth
-
very shallow (0-20 cm)
-
shallow (21-50 cm)
-
moderately deep (51-80 cm)
-
deep (81-120 cm)
-
very deep (> 120 cm)
Soil texture (topsoil)
-
coarse/ light (sandy)
-
medium (loamy, silty)
-
fine/ heavy (clay)
Soil texture (> 20 cm below surface)
-
coarse/ light (sandy)
-
medium (loamy, silty)
-
fine/ heavy (clay)
Topsoil organic matter content
-
high (>3%)
-
medium (1-3%)
-
low (<1%)
Groundwater table
-
on surface
-
< 5 m
-
5-50 m
-
> 50 m
Availability of surface water
-
excess
-
good
-
medium
-
poor/ none
Water quality (untreated)
-
good drinking water
-
poor drinking water (treatment required)
-
for agricultural use only (irrigation)
-
unusable
Is salinity a problem?
Occurrence of flooding
Characteristics of land users applying the Technology
Market orientation
-
subsistence (self-supply)
-
mixed (subsistence/ commercial)
-
commercial/ market
Off-farm income
-
less than 10% of all income
-
10-50% of all income
-
> 50% of all income
Relative level of wealth
-
very poor
-
poor
-
average
-
rich
-
very rich
Level of mechanization
-
manual work
-
animal traction
-
mechanized/ motorized
Sedentary or nomadic
-
Sedentary
-
Semi-nomadic
-
Nomadic
Individuals or groups
-
individual/ household
-
groups/ community
-
cooperative
-
employee (company, government)
Age
-
children
-
youth
-
middle-aged
-
elderly
Area used per household
-
< 0.5 ha
-
0.5-1 ha
-
1-2 ha
-
2-5 ha
-
5-15 ha
-
15-50 ha
-
50-100 ha
-
100-500 ha
-
500-1,000 ha
-
1,000-10,000 ha
-
> 10,000 ha
Scale
-
small-scale
-
medium-scale
-
large-scale
Land ownership
-
state
-
company
-
communal/ village
-
group
-
individual, not titled
-
individual, titled
Land use rights
-
open access (unorganized)
-
communal (organized)
-
leased
-
individual
Water use rights
-
open access (unorganized)
-
communal (organized)
-
leased
-
individual
Access to services and infrastructure
Impacts
Ecological impacts
surface runoff
Quantity before SLM: 40
Quantity after SLM: 20
soil loss
Quantity before SLM: 570
Quantity after SLM: 60
Cost-benefit analysis
Benefits compared with establishment costs
Short-term returns
very negative
very positive
Long-term returns
very negative
very positive
Benefits compared with maintenance costs
Short-term returns
very negative
very positive
Long-term returns
very negative
very positive
Adoption and adaptation
Percentage of land users in the area who have adopted the Technology
-
single cases/ experimental
-
1-10%
-
11-50%
-
> 50%
Of all those who have adopted the Technology, how many have done so without receiving material incentives?
-
0-10%
-
11-50%
-
51-90%
-
91-100%
Number of households and/ or area covered
138 Households
Has the Technology been modified recently to adapt to changing conditions?
To which changing conditions?
-
climatic change/ extremes
-
changing markets
-
labour availability (e.g. due to migration)
Conclusions and lessons learnt
Strengths: land user's view
Strengths: compiler’s or other key resource person’s view
Weaknesses/ disadvantages/ risks: land user's viewhow to overcome
Weaknesses/ disadvantages/ risks: compiler’s or other key resource person’s viewhow to overcome
References
Reviewer
-
David Streiff
-
Alexandra Gavilano
Date of documentation: Des. 13, 2010
Last update: Maart 14, 2019
Full description in the WOCAT database
Documentation was faciliated by
Institution
- Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) - China
Project
