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Topic: watersheds

Ironically, Flood Control is Flooding New Orleans

By Karen Bennett on March 5, 2008
Location: WASHINGTON, D.C.

Man-made flood-control systems—such as levees, upstream dams, and canals—continue to be responsible for widespread damage to the New Orleans and Louisiana landscapes.

Eutrophication and Hypoxia in Coastal Areas: A Global Assessment of the State of Knowledge

Mindy Selman, Zachary Sugg, Suzie Greenhalgh, Robert Diaz

March 1, 2008

Eutrophication—the overenrichment of water by nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus—has emerged as a leading water quality problem. This report identifies over 415 areas worldwide that are experiencing eutrophication symptoms, and there are significant information gaps in many regions.

Agricultural Lands by Slope Category

February 13, 2008

Agriculture, though important to economic development and food security, is a source of increased sediment, nutrient, and pesticide runoff.

Immigration Linked to Degraded Ecosystem

By Karen Bennett on January 17, 2008
Location: WASHINGTON, D.C.

Border security is not typically recognized as being tied to environmental changes, but in this recent article by The New York Times, the links are clear. It details how declining fish catches in northwest Africa are fueling immigration to Europe.

Choking Coastal Waters

By Mindy Selman on January 4, 2008
Location: WASHINGTON, D.C.

My team at WRI, together with Dr. Bob Diaz at the Virginia Marine Institute, has identified and mapped 415 eutrophic and hypoxic coastal systems worldwide through an extensive literature review. Of these, 169 are documented hypoxic areas, 233 are areas of concern and 13 are systems in recovery.

Reefs at Risk

Raising awareness of threats to coral reefs and providing information and tools to manage coastal habitats more effectively.

Paying for Environmental Performance: Estimating the Environmental Outcomes of Agricultural Best Management Practices

May, 2007

How can the estimation of environmental outcomes be used to effectively allocate conservation funding, and what additional steps are needed to improve this process?

Paying For Environmental Performance: Using Reverse Auctions to Allocate Funding For Conservation

January, 2007

Explains how reverse auctions can be used as a cost-effective method for allocating funding in US Farm Bill Conservation Programs.

Watershed Analysis for the Mesoamerican Reef

Lauretta Burke, Zachary Sugg, with contributions from: Will Heyman, Shin Kobara, Laurent Cherubin, Christopher Kuchinke, Claire Paris, Johnathan Kool

December, 2006

This analysis quantifies and maps the origins of sediment and nutrient runoff that threatens the Mesoamerican Reef. With it, WRI seeks to inform land-use planning, agriculture, conservation and threat mitigation efforts.

Watershed Workshop Proceedings, Belize 2006

Lauretta Burke, Eric van Praag, Joep Luijten, Liza Agudelo

October, 2006

Proceedings from Workshop on Watershed Management, Land Cover Change Analysis, and Modeling of Land-based Sources of Pollution and Sediment Discharge to the MAR – San Ignacio, Belize, August 15-18, 2006

Conservation Best Management Practices, Cost-share and Water Quality Trading Programs

Suzie Greenhalgh, Mindy Selman, and Michael Taylor

July, 2006

Outlines economic and “fairness” reasons why supporting the sale of the cost-share portion of agricultural nutrient and sediment reductions is not the most appropriate policy for the USDA and other government agencies to adopt.

Land-based Sources of Threat to Coral Reefs in the US Virgin Islands

World Resources Institute (WRI) and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

February, 2006

This atlas, developed by WRI and NOAA, provides a series of spatial indicators of watershed-based sources of threat to coral reefs in the US Virgin Islands.

Awakening the Dead Zone: An investment for agriculture, water quality, and climate change

Suzie Greenhalgh and Amanda Sauer

February, 2003

Compares a number of policy options to reduce nutrient loss in the Mississippi River Basin from agricultural sources, provide new income sources for farmers, and help address hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.

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