Year of publication 2023

Focusing on freshwater systems, this course inspires managers, scientists, and community members to work across disciplines and watersheds. The course coaches learners to understand, monitor, and manage watersheds as integrated systems. Lessons begin with watershed function and then focus on forests, freshwater, and fisheries. In each case emphasizing interlinkages, spatial structure, seasonality, benefits to humans, and simple monitoring indicators. Project work in the upper Kafue River watershed, one of the headwaters of the Zambezi River in Zambia, and in the Magdalena and Atrato Rivers, Colombia, offer local perspectives and convincing case studies for understanding and managing on-the-ground conditions. This course will benefit those interested in learning about freshwater ecosystems, forest-water-fisheries linkages, and watershed management. It may be of particular interest to those with expertise in one element of watershed management, such as forestry or fisheries, and who want to uncover opportunities for working effectively with colleagues who have differing types of expertise. It primarily targets those engaged with designing watershed monitoring and management plans .