Journal ArticleDOI
A global perspective on environmental flow assessment: emerging trends in the development and application of environmental flow methodologies for rivers
TLDR
A global review of the present status of environmental flow methodologies revealed the existence of some 207 individual methodologies, recorded for 44 countries within six world regions, with a further two categories representing combination-type and other approaches as discussed by the authors.Abstract:
Recognition of the escalating hydrological alteration of rivers on a global scale and resultant environmental degradation, has led to the establishment of the science of environmental flow assessment whereby the quantity and quality of water required for ecosystem conservation and resource protection are determined.
A global review of the present status of environmental flow methodologies revealed the existence of some 207 individual methodologies, recorded for 44 countries within six world regions. These could be differentiated into hydrological, hydraulic rating, habitat simulation and holistic methodologies, with a further two categories representing combination-type and other approaches.
Although historically, the United States has been at the forefront of the development and application of methodologies for prescribing environmental flows, using 37% of the global pool of techniques, parallel initiatives in other parts of the world have increasingly provided the impetus for significant advances in the field.
Application of methodologies is typically at two or more levels. (1) Reconnaissance-level initiatives relying on hydrological methodologies are the largest group (30% of the global total), applied in all world regions. Commonly, a modified Tennant method or arbitrary low flow indices is adopted, but efforts to enhance the ecological relevance and transferability of techniques across different regions and river types are underway. (2) At more comprehensive scales of assessment, two avenues of application of methodologies exist. In developed countries of the northern hemisphere, particularly, the instream flow incremental methodology (IFIM) or other similarly structured approaches are used. As a group, these methodologies are the second most widely applied worldwide, with emphasis on complex, hydrodynamic habitat modelling. The establishment of holistic methodologies as 8% of the global total within a decade, marks an alternative route by which environmental flow assessment has advanced. Such methodologies, several of which are scenario-based, address the flow requirements of the entire riverine ecosystem, based on explicit links between changes in flow regime and the consequences for the biophysical environment. Recent advancements include the consideration of ecosystem-dependent livelihoods and a benchmarking process suitable for evaluating alternative water resource developments at basin scale, in relatively poorly known systems. Although centred in Australia and South Africa, holistic methodologies have stimulated considerable interest elsewhere. They may be especially appropriate in developing world regions, where environmental flow research is in its infancy and water allocations for ecosystems must, for the time being at least, be based on scant data, best professional judgement and risk assessment. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Freshwater biodiversity: importance, threats, status and conservation challenges
David Dudgeon,Angela Arthington,Mark O. Gessner,Zen'ichiro Kawabata,Duncan Knowler,Christian Lévêque,Robert J. Naiman,Anne-Hélène Prieur-Richard,Doris Soto,Melanie L. J. Stiassny,Caroline A Sullivan +10 more
TL;DR: This article explores the special features of freshwater habitats and the biodiversity they support that makes them especially vulnerable to human activities and advocates continuing attempts to check species loss but urges adoption of a compromise position of management for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem functioning and resilience, and human livelihoods.
Journal ArticleDOI
The ecological limits of hydrologic alteration (ELOHA): a new framework for developing regional environmental flow standards
N. LeRoy Poff,Brian Richter,Angela Arthington,Stuart E. Bunn,Robert J. Naiman,Eloise Kendy,Mike Acreman,Colin Apse,Brian P. Bledsoe,Mary C. Freeman,James A. Henriksen,Robert B. Jacobson,Jonathan G. Kennen,David M. Merritt,Jay O'Keeffe,Julian D. Olden,Kevin H. Rogers,Rebecca Tharme,Andrew Warner +18 more
TL;DR: The ecological limits of hydrologic alteration (ELOHA) as mentioned in this paper is a framework for assessing environmental flow needs for many streams and rivers simultaneously to foster development and implementation of environmental flow standards at the regional scale.
Journal ArticleDOI
The challenge of providing environmental flow rules to sustain river ecosystems
TL;DR: A generic approach is proposed that incorporates essential aspects of natural flow variability shared across particular classes of rivers that can be validated with empirical biological data and other information in a calibration process and can bridge the gap between simple hydrological "rules of thumb" and more comprehensive environmental flow assessments and experimental flow restoration projects.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecologically sustainable water management: managing river flows for ecological integrity
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a framework for developing an ecologically sustainable water management program, in which human needs for water are met by storing and diverting water in a manner that can sustain or restore the ecological integrity of affected river ecosystems.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate change and the world's river basins: anticipating management options
Margaret A. Palmer,Margaret A. Palmer,Catherine Reidy Liermann,Christer Nilsson,Martina Flörke,Joseph Alcamo,P. Sam Lake,Nick Bond +7 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors project river discharge under different climate and water withdrawal scenarios and combine this with data on the impact of dams on large river basins to create global maps illustrating potential changes in discharge and water stress for dam-impacted and free-flowing basins.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Natural Flow Regime
N. LeRoy Poff,N. LeRoy Poff,J. David Allan,Mark B. Bain,James R. Karr,Karen L. Prestegaard,Brian Richter,Richard E. Sparks,Julie C. Stromberg +8 more
TL;DR: In this article, Naiman et al. pointed out that harnessing of streams and rivers comes at great cost: Many rivers no longer support socially valued native species or sustain healthy ecosystems that provide important goods and services.
Journal ArticleDOI
Basic principles and ecological consequences of altered flow regimes for aquatic biodiversity.
Stuart E. Bunn,Angela Arthington +1 more
TL;DR: This literature review has focused this literature review around four key principles to highlight the important mechanisms that link hydrology and aquatic biodiversity and to illustrate the consequent impacts of altered flow regimes.
Journal ArticleDOI
A Method for Assessing Hydrologic Alteration within Ecosystems
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a method for assessing the degree of hydrologic alteration attributable to human influence within an ecosystem, referred to as the "Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration".
Journal ArticleDOI
Fragmentation and flow regulation of river systems in the northern third of the world.
Mats Dynesius,Christer Nilsson +1 more
TL;DR: To improve the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of biological resources, immediate action is called for to create an international preservation network of free-flowing river systems and to rehabilitate exploited rivers in areas that lack unaffected watercourses.
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