Watershed Research Started in Thailand

Abstract

Thailand has extensive areas of mountainous wildlands that provide some of the Kingdom’s most valuable natural resources. Water from these wildland watersheds is a major resource. Forests and other kinds of vegetation on these lands should be managed with the primary objective of protecting the soil; then producing amount of usable water with the minimum of sediment, as well as forest products and other resources. Realizing the importance of wateryield and sediment control to meet increasing demands for water for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes, the Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University, considered it a pressing and urgent need to focus attention upon watershed management research, particularly the influences of natural forest corer, shifting cultivation, and other uses of mountain lands that affect water yield and cause soil erosion. Knowledge obtained from the research could be used to recommend efficient practices of vegetative management to meet the optimum level of natural resources utilization on a proper sustained yield basis.