Hydrological assessment and monitoring of wetlands

The physical and chemical characteristics which favour wetland plant communities, primarily high soil water levels and anaerobic soil chemistry, are related directly to the hydrology/hydrogeology of the wetland and often its surrounding catchment. Appreciation and successful management of a wetland therefore almost always requires an understanding of its hydrological functioning, including the influences on hydrological functioning which often lie beyond the designated boundary of the site. This section introduces ecohydrological conceptual models as a repository for knowledge about the combined ecological and hydrological functioning of a wetland and then provides a starting point (or initial framework) for the development of such a model. Also introduced are hydro-environmental supporting conditions (HSCs) that allow us to describe specific hydrological conditions required to support wetland plant communities. A suite of techniques for ecohydrological investigation and characterization of wetlands are described, the results from which can be used to develop and refine the ecohydrological conceptual model