9404701 Nawrocki The comparison of wetland hydrological functions in headwaters of the Mississippi (USA) and the Volga (Russia) could provide us with credible information how alternative management strategies impact runoff, peak flow and water quality under changing climate. The macro scale "field experiment" in both areas, having close natural similarity, is already on the way. Wetland conservation vs drainage is now the prevailing policy in Upper Mississippi basin. Economic problems in Russia do not let this policy to become a priority. Peat mining, reservoir construction on lowlands and drainage for farming and private gardening are common. The project will focus on problems, how the extent and positioning of wetlands affect runoff and peak flow; what is the role of wetlands for diffuse pollution prevention and sediment deposition; what are the relationships between distribution of wetlands, other land uses and flood risk, water quality under variable climate conditions; how to determine criteria for wetland conservation in headwaters, ensuring environmental sustainability and multiobjective resources use. Assessments of wetland functions will be based on hydrological models, GIS and remote sensing. Integrated comparative analysis of representative watersheds in both basins will be performed. Procedures for scaling information from local to regional level will be developed. The objectives of the research planning stage (1 year) are to conduct feasibility studies of available hydrological models, and their sensitivity analysis; to select the methodology for wetland impact assessment, combining modeling and GIS; to implement the search and analysis of scattered multi disciplinary sources of data; to develop procedures to fill the detected data gaps and to convert heterogeneous formats into a set of input data, compatible with the selected methodology; to prepare the subsequent research proposal for the full scale project. The full scale project (3 years) will be aimed at the development of a multi layered hierarchical base of GIS data for headwater watersheds of the Mississippi and the Volga; comparative analysis of wetland impacts on hydrology of the rivers; obtaining the relationships between natural and human induced factors of wetland functions under climate change and variable strategies of wetland conservation; defining criteria and thresholds for wetland system stability with regard to flood risk and water quality; outlining recommendations for wetland management in the headwaters.
