| Rivers of many scales have acted as conduits of transportation and communication, sources of agricultural irrigation, hydropower, potable water, and sinks of anthropogenic waste. As such, humans have always tried to manage rivers, and in the process, have often erred to extent of mismanagement. This has often led to compromising the ecological integrity of rivers, especially of large rivers. Most lotic models are "channel-centric" and there has been no generally accepted viable models that could serve as a framework for management of an entire watershed system.; The newly constructed General Integrative Watershed model (GIW), herein introduced and implemented, however, is (1) holistic, (2) applicable to both anthropogenically impacted and pristine watersheds, (3) cosmopolitan because it is applicable in any lithologic, topographic, biotic, and climatic regime, (4) a mechanistic, discrete patch system permitting cross-watershed comparisons, (5) modular, treating tributaries as units, and (6) the model is simple and easily implemented.; The GIW was implemented using the French Creek watershed in northwestern Pennsylvania. The GIW predicted differential influences of various geologic bedrock, glacial deposits, and land use attributes on French Creek water quality. The model was also used to discern relationships between mussel associations and terrestrial watershed attributes. |
