Upwind forests: managing moisture recycling for nature-based resilience

Efficient and effective forest and water-related nature-based solutions to challenges in human development require a holistic understanding of the role of forest–water interactions in hydrologic flows and water supply in local, regional and continental landscapes. Forest and water resource management, however, tends to focus on river flows and to take rainfall for granted as an unruly, unmanageable input to the system (Ellison, Futter and Bishop, 2012). Thus, the potential impact of increased tree and forest cover on downwind rainfall and potential water supply is both underestimated and underappreciated.