Field Experimental Design for a Watershed Observing System

Abstract

A watershed, regarded as the ideal unit for practicing earth system science, possesses all of the complexities of the land surface system. Thus, building a watershed observing system and conducting a field experiment for the observation of the ecohydrological processes at watershed scale is the best way to understand the complexities of the land surface system. This chapter presents an overview on the designing and conducting of a field experiment and establishing a watershed observing system. Several key scientific problems are addressed: (1) why we need a watershed observing system, (2) what are the characteristics of a watershed observing system, and (3) how can we design and establish a watershed observing system. We believe that a watershed observing system is the prerequisite of the watershed science development and helping to improve the understanding of the ecohydrological processes. The watershed observing system possesses the multidiscipline and multiscale characteristics. It must be able to capture the spatiotemporal heterogeneity and to quantify the uncertainty of the key ecohydrological variables. Finally, by taking two sequential watershed-scale observation experiments as example, we furthermore illustrate how to design and establish a watershed observing system.