| Abstrakt: |
Recent criticisms discount the contribution of experimental watersheds to the science of hydrology and to watershed management. The critics cite as disadvantages the cost of experimental watersheds, their unrepresentativeness, leakiness, difficulty in applying results to other areas, and the lack of progress in basic knowledge about hydrologie processes. Some critics propose mathematical synthesis, statistical analysis, plot studies, soil moisture studies, meteorological methods, and the study of individual hydrologie processes as alternatives to experimental watersheds. The criticisms lack weight, because published results of catchment experiments were not carefully reviewed. The alternatives are obviously aids rather than substitutes for experiments on watersheds. By reference to recent and older results, the authors argue that the experimental watershed method has produced much of our present knowledge about the land phase of the hydrologie cycle and man's influence on it, that the method is sound, and that its future in any comprehensive research program is secure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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