UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MINDANAO

CONSERVATION and the Environment

TOPIC
TOPIC OUTLINE:

1. Introduction to Land and Water Conservation Engineering

2. Importance of Land and Water Conservation
Conservation:

• Measures that provide for the management of soil and

water

• Conservation practices involves the soil, the plant and the

climate, each of which is of utmost importance
 Soil and water conservation engineering

• the application of engineering and biological principles to

the solution of soil and water management problems
• conservation of natural resources implies utilization
without waste while maintaining a continuous profitable
level of crop production and while improving
environmental quality.
 Soil and water conservation engineering
• Philippines is widely acknowledged as having an outstanding
endowment of natural resources, which could provide essential
ecosystem services to the population

• Demands arising from development and utilization activities,

population expansion, poor environmental protection, and
external factors such as climate change
>have placed the country’s environment and natural
resources under grave threat
 Engineers in Soil and Water Conservation
• Agricultural and Biological Systems engineers are well suited
to integrate engineering, atmospheric, plant and soil
sciences because of their training in soils, plants, biology, and
other basic agricultural subjects, in addition to their
engineering background.
• Engineers in soil and water conservation mostly worked in
the government particularly on DA, DENR, DAR and DOST
(NAP, 2010).
• Non-Government Organizations were also involved on
conservation effort.
 Conservation Ethics
Environmental conservation is an umbrella term that
defines anything we do to protect our planet and conserve
its natural resources so that every living thing can have an
improved quality of life. The environment is vital to our well
– being and every element should be protected.
 Conservation Ethics
• Conserve by using less energy and embracing alternative energy
sources
• Help replenish what is being taken away by giving back to the Earth
• Practice habits that are part of conservational effortS
 Environmental Regulations

Evironmental regulations are rules and requirements that generally

cover two things:
(1)Pollution control: regulating how much pollution (chemicals or
other undesirable materials such as "heat", "suspended
particulates" ) a facility releases.
(2)Conservation management: maintaining health of ecosystems -
protecting land, assuring diversity of species, etc.
 Environmental Regulations

• REPUBLIC ACT 9003 ECOLOGICAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ACT OF

2000
• REPUBLIC ACT 9275 PHILIPPINE CLEAN WATER ACT OF 2004
• REPUBLIC ACT 8749 PHILIPPINE CLEAN AIR ACT OF 1999
• REPUBLIC ACT 6969 TOXIC SUBSTANCES, HAZARDOUS AND NUCLEAR
WASTE CONTROL ACT OF 1990
• PRESIDENTIAL DECREE 1586 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT (EIS)
OF 1978
 Engineering Problems Involved in Soil and Water
Conservation divided into the following phases:

EROSION
DRAINAGE IRRIGATION
CONTROL

WATER
FLOOD
RESOURCES
CONTROL
CONSERVATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MINDANAO

HYDROLOGIC CYCLE
 Hydrologic Cycle
• Hydrology is the study of water movement, distribution and quality
throughout the earth.
• Hydrological cycle describes the continuous movement of water on, above
and below the land surface driven by solar radiation.
✓ the atmosphere;
✓ land surface; and
✓ the subsurface.
• As water moves through the hydrological cycle it changes state between
liquid, solid (ice) and gas (vapor) phases.
Hydrologic Cycle
Is a process by which the
water evaporates and
transported from the
earth’s surface to the
atmosphere and back to
the land and ocean.
Components of
hydrologic System
• Evaporation/Transpiration
• Condensation
• Precipitation
• Runoff
Evaporation
• Process by which water changes from a liquid to a gas
or vapor
• It is primary pathway that water moves from the
liquid state back into the water cycle as atmospheric
water vapor
 Transpiration
• It is the release of water from plant leaves
 Condensation
- Condensation is responsible for the
formation of clouds.
- Water molecules (present in the
vapour) will combine with the dust,
salt and smoke (which act as a
nucleus) in the air to form cloud
droplet, which then combine, grow
and develop into a cloud. When these
clouds in the air can no longer “float”
in the surrounding air, it can start to
rain, snow, and hail.
• Water droplets may grow as a result of additional
condensation of water vapor when the particles collide.
• Due to continuous collision of the condensed water, then
it would fall.
• Most of the condensed water in clouds does not fall as
precipitation because their fall speed is not large enough
to overcome updrafts which support the clouds.
 Precipitation
• From gas – solid/liquid
• If the clouds are too large and
cannot float in the air. Precipitation
occurs in the form of rain, freezing
rain, snow, sleet or hail.
• The clouds floating overhead contain water vapour and cloud droplets,
which are small drops of condensed water.
• When the condensed water in the sky is already full and enough due to
continues evaporation and transpiration.
Runoff
The total amount of water in the hydrological cycle remains
essentially constant, although different impacts could
change the amount of water in some of the components.

Examples of activities that alter or affects the hydrological

cycle include: agriculture, deforestation, urbanization and
climate change
References:

Atienza, R.N., J. Hapal, and E. Moga. 2008. Legislative and institutional aspects of soil
and water conservation: the Philippine experience. 15th ISCO conference, Budapest

National Action Plan (NAP).2004. The Philippine National Action Plan to combat
desertification, land degradation, drought, and poverty for 2004-2010.Department of
Agriculture, Department of Environment and natural resources, Department of science
and technology, and Department of Agrarian reform, Manila, Philippines

Lantican, A., L. C. Guerra, and S. I. Bhuiyan .2003. Impacts of soil erosion in the upper
Manupali watershed on irrigated lowlands in the Philippines. Paddy water Environment
1, 19-26.

Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) 2004. The Philippine Mineral Sector. DENR,
Quezon City, Philippines.