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Observing Ecohydrological Processes: Challenges and Perspectives

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Observation and Measurement of Ecohydrological Processes

Part of the book series: Ecohydrology ((ECOH))

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Abstract

The observation and measurement of ecohydrological processes have been witnessed a huge progress in terms of novel ideas, methodologies, and techniques. Many cutting-edge observing techniques, e.g., stable isotope, wireless sensor network, cosmic ray probe, multi-source remote sensing, are continuously introduced and widely applied. As the first chapter of this book, this chapter introduces the progresses, challenges, and perspectives of observing ecohydrological processes. We first introduced the key states and fluxes that control the ecohydrological processes and novel techniques that allow those controlling factors to be quantified. However, we found that knowledge gap remains, including: (1) improving the observation ability to understand and quantify the ecohydrological processes, (2) integrating multisource observations into a dynamics model to accurately estimate the state and flux variables of ecohydrological processes, (3) developing upscaling approaches through system observations to understand the scaling issue, and (4) estimating representativeness error to quantify the uncertainties. To this end, we pointed out the potential directions for filling these gaps, including: (1) to better translate remotely sensed data into information that helps us better understand ecohydrological processes and better inform land-surface models, (2) to better quantify the roles of subsurface processes in ecohydrological processes, (3) to develop observational systems that allow ecohydrological processes to be captured across different scales and across compartments, (4) to use well-instrumented watersheds as test beds of new concept for ecohydrological observations, (5) to combine monitoring and controllable and synthetic observation experiments, (6) to utilize technical advancements in new models, and (7) to integrate observation systems with integrated models, data services, and decision making. Overall, this chapter provides an insight into the-state-of-art of observing ecohydrological processes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 91425303), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Grant No. XDA20100104.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xin Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing of Gansu Province, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China

    Chunfeng Ma

  3. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xin Li

  4. Agrosphere Institute, IBG-3, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany

    Harry Vereecken

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Correspondence to Xin Li .

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  1. Cold and Arid Region Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China

    Xin Li

  2. Institute of Bio- and Geosciences Agrosphere, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Harry Vereecken

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Li, X., Vereecken, H., Ma, C. (2019). Observing Ecohydrological Processes: Challenges and Perspectives. In: Li, X., Vereecken, H. (eds) Observation and Measurement of Ecohydrological Processes. Ecohydrology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47871-4_1-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47871-4_1-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-47871-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-47871-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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