Alternatif pengelolaan lahan optimal untuk pelestarian sumber daya air di pulau ambon

Abstract

Land degradation on the upper stream area in Ambon island has reduced the water resources discharge and fresh water availability significantly to the people. For Ambon city in particular, fresh water capacity provided by PDAM, the local government fresh water company, can serve only 19,14% of total households. Fresh water discharge reduction is attributable to the change in forest land use to agriculture and settlement at the upper stream area. In order to solve the problem of fresh water resources in Ambon island, Batugantung watershed had been chosen as a representative of critical watershed in Ambon island for this research with the objectives as follows : 1) to evaluate the effect of a change of land use towards watershed hydrology characteristic (distribution and water yield) in Ambon island; 2) Determine erosion rate at each land unit and income of existing “dusun” farming at Batugantung watershed; and 3) to determine alternative optimum land management in order to reduce the rate of soil erosion, incline of land productivity and farmer income, as well as to protect and conserve water resource in Ambon island.