Water retention covers a wide set of mechanisms (see synthesis document n°1) the effect of which are to increase the capture of water by aquifers, soil, and aquatic and water dependent ecosystems.

"Water sensitive driving" requires an awareness of the wet areas (mires, peatlands, etc.) in the landscape and an ability to avoid them while conducting forestry operations. Water sensitive driving is focussed primarily on minimizing water quality impacts of forestry including nutrient leakage and an increased potential for methylmercury formation.

Wetlands restoration and creation can involve: technical, spatially large-scale measures (including the installation of ditches for rewetting or the cutback of dykes to enable flooding); technical small-scale measures such as clearing trees; as well as changes in land-use and agricultural measures, such as adapting cultivation practices in wetland areas.ﾠ Wetland restoration can improve the hydrological regime of degraded wetlands and generall

Areas that are inundated by surface or ground water with frequency sufficient to support a prevalence of vegetative or aquatic life that requires saturated or seasonally saturated soil conditions for growth or reproduction.