Concept and Necessity of Watershed Elasticity

Ever-increasing of population, global warming, and other natural disasters such as droughts and floods have led to a significant decline in health and ecosystem services. It further improves the necessity of planning and providing management measures for the tendency of watersheds towards optimal health, providing sustainable services, and avoiding critical conditions. However, due to the different conditions of the watersheds resulting from the prevailing conditions and their different resilience levels against the pressures, the elasticity of the watersheds to tend towards a relatively stable state is different. It accordingly is necessary to know the elasticity of watersheds to prioritize actions aimed at increasing the watershed health and ecosystem services. However, it was determined by reviewing the studies, until now, the conceptualization and modeling of the watersheds elasticity range in terms of watershed health and cultural, regulatory, provisioning, and supportive services have not been addressed yet. Therefore, in the present study, the management approach of the watershed elasticity domain and its importance and benefits in integrated watershed management are presented. Based on this, a framework for estimating the elasticity of watershed can be determined and a suitable model for explaining appropriate management practices to achieve sustainable development can be provided to local, regional, and national managers.