Conservation of brooks in small watersheds: A case for planning: Fid-Bau Portal

Conservation of brooks in small watersheds: A case for planning

Jongman, Rob H.G.

AbstractNature conservation is under stress in The Netherlands because of intensive land use practice and related water use, even on the fringe of natural areas. In general, integration of nature conservation and other land uses is a recent objective in Dutch planning.The relationship between landscape ecological processes and the Dutch planning system is explained for artificial brooks in the Veluwe National Park. Artificial brooks are man made and originate from the 12th to the 16th century. They have characteristic macrofauna communities and their preservation is an important objective of the National Park. However some brooks are threatened by desiccation.From a study of the water balance, it is shown that extraction in some parts of the research area causes water shortage in regions where dry brooks occur. Water extraction is inevitable because of the dense population in the fringes of the National Park. This leads to the conclusion that integration of research and coordination of physical planning and water use planning is needed to arrive at a sound nature conservation policy.