Wetlands and riparian areas are unique landscape elements that perform a disproportionate role in landscape functioning relative to their aerial extent on the landscape. The purpose of this guide is to provide a general foundation for the reader in several interrelated disciplines for the purpose of enabling him/her to characterize and quantify the water needs of riparian and wetland vegetation. Topics discussed are wetland and riparian classification, characteristics and ecology, surface and groundwater hydrology, plant physiology and population and community ecology, and techniques for linking attributes of vegetation to patterns of surface and groundwater and soil moisture.

Wetland and riparian ecosystems comprise a very small percentage of the western US land area, yet provide important economic and ecological functions. Wetlands provide important habitat for many species of animals, particularly amphibians, birds, and mammals; are local and regional centers for biodiversity; and provide biogeochemical, physical, and ecological processes that maintain water quality flood attenuation, forage production for livestock, watershed hydrologic functioning, stream and lakeside stability, and a range of other valuable ecosystem services. As the ecological importance of wetland and riparian ecosystems has become better understood, laws and regulations have been promulgated toward ecosystem conservation and management. However, many wetland and riparian ecosystems in the US have been damaged or destroyed by anthropogenic activities, including drainage for agriculture, dewatering and altered flow regimes by dams and reservoirs and groundwater pumping, stream water diversions, filling, gravel mining, and other activities. Of growing concern is the increasing human demand for water, particularly in arid and semiarid regions of the West. This demand is intensifying the pressure on rivers and their adjacent riparian areas, wetlands, and groundwater systems and is threatening the functioning and long-term viability of these areas. This report focuses on providing tools for examining linkages between surface water, groundwater, and wetland and riparian vegetation. Such tools will enable managers to quantify the costs and benefits of various activities associated with water, land, and river management as well as to examine the physical and biological responses of freshwater ecosystems to factors associated with climate change. This document will provide guidance to land managers, research scientists, and others tasked with understanding the hydrologic interrelationships between riverine and wetland ecosystems, groundwater, climate, land uses, and stressors. This work begins with a classification and description of major wetland types in the western US. The authors then examine factors that influence hydrologic regime in wetlands and rivers, followed by a primer on plant-water relations, plant physiology, and plant and vegetation measurement techniques. Approaches to experimental design and techniques for measuring surface and groundwater are presented along with methods of gathering, processing, and analyzing data from such studies and linking attributes of wetland and riparian vegetation to hydrologic processes. Several case studies and examples of applications of the tools and methods are presented here to systems in the western US. Thought the guide is tailored to the range of wetland and riparian system types in the western US, the basic principles and methods presented apply to other regions as well.

Wetlands and riparian areas are unique landscape elements that perform a disproportionate role in landscape functioning relative to their aerial extent on the landscape. The purpose of this guide is to provide a general foundation for the reader in several interrelated disciplines for the purpose of enabling him/her to characterize and quantify the water needs of riparian and wetland vegetation. Topics discussed are wetland and riparian classification, characteristics and ecology, surface and groundwater hydrology, plant physiology and population and community ecology, and techniques for linking attributes of vegetation to patterns of surface and groundwater and soil moisture.

The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that wetlands be protected from degradation because of their important ecological functions including maintenance of high water quality and provision of fish and wildlife habitat. However, this protection generally does not encompass riparian areasâ€"the lands bordering rivers and lakesâ€"even though they often provide the same functions as wetlands. Growing recognition of the similarities in wetland and riparian area functioning and the differences in their legal protection led the NRC in 1999 to undertake a study of riparian areas, which has culminated in Riparian Areas: Functioning and Strategies for Management. The report is intended to heighten awareness of riparian areas commensurate with their ecological and societal values. The primary conclusion is that, because riparian areas perform a disproportionate number of biological and physical functions on a unit area basis, restoration of riparian functions along America's waterbodies should be a national goal.

This annotated bibliography contains 1,905 citations from professional journals, symposia, workshops, proceedings, technical reports, and other sources. The intent of this compilation was to: (1) assemble, to the extent possible, all available and accessible publications relating to riparian management within a single source or document; (2) provide managers, field biologists, researchers, and others, a point of access for locating scientific literature relevent to their specific interest; and (3) provide, under one cover, a comprehensive collection of annotated publications that could dessiminate basic information relative to the status of our knowledge.

The demand for water resulting from massive population and economic growth in the southwestern U.S. overwhelmed traditional uses of riparian areas. As a consequence, many of these uniquely-structured ecosystems have been altered or destroyed. Within recent years people have become increasingly aware of the many uses and benefits of riparian zones a

The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that wetlands be protected from degradation because of their important ecological functions including maintenance of high water quality and provision of fish and wildlife habitat. However, this protection generally does not encompass riparian areasâ€"the lands bordering rivers and lakesâ€"even though they often provide the same functions as wetlands. Growing recognition of the similarities in wetland and riparian area functioning and the differences in their legal protection led the NRC in 1999 to undertake a study of riparian areas, which has culminated in Riparian Areas: Functioning and Strategies for Management. The report is intended to heighten awareness of riparian areas commensurate with their ecological and societal values. The primary conclusion is that, because riparian areas perform a disproportionate number of biological and physical functions on a unit area basis, restoration of riparian functions along America's waterbodies should be a national goal.