A Study of Rapid Hydrological Appraisal in the Krueng Peusangan Watershed, NAD, Sumatra

The Krueng Peusangan Watershed is categorized as degraded area with 1st priority by the Department of Public Work and Water Resource Services of Aceh Province (Departemen Pekerjaan Umum dan Dinas Sumber Daya Air, Aceh province) meaning this watershed has experienced very severe degradation and needs high priority to improve its situation. The Aceh Provincial Government developed a strategic planning of integrated and sustainable watershed management of the Krueng Peusangan watershed to prevent further watershed degradation. Aligned to the development of the strategic planning, WWF in collaboration with the World Agroforestry Centre
(ICRAF) SEA Regional Program conducted a comprehensive hydrology study from the perspective of multiple stakeholders using the Rapid Hydrological Appraisal (RHA) method.


The objectives of the RHA are to appraise the hydrological situation from the perspective of multiple stakeholders: local ecological knowledge (LEK), public/policymakers ecological knowledge (PEK), and hydrologist/modeler ecological knowledge (MEK). Further, the recommendation from the application of RHA is to design a realistic approach in designing a reward for watershed services scheme. To accomplish the objective of the study, the RHA method was implemented through the following activities:

1. Survey and exploration of the two main types of stakeholder knowledge: local and
public/policy maker ecological knowledge on water movement and causes and
consequences of land use options on the landscape from the perspective of multiple users of the Krueng Peusangan watershed,
2. Gathering and analyzing of existing climate and hydrology data on the Krueng Peusangan watershed,
3. Spatial data analysis of the Krueng Peusangan watershed to obtain land cover information, land cover change information and watershed characteristic,
4. Analyses of the consequences of current land cover change on the values of water balance including river flow in the Krueng Peusangan watershed using GenRiver 2.0 model, and
5. Analyses of plausible future land cover changes scenarios and its impacts using GenRiver 2.0 model.