Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations cover all living things on Earth. However, downscaling the SDGs to regional scales for implementation is challenging. In the paper, we convert the general SDGs into tangible and actionable goals, targets and indicators for use in integrated river basin management (IRBM). Further, we propose a decision support framework that can be used to support IRBM implementation based on the SDGs. The framework offers a context for open thinking in which IRBM decision makers envision socioeconomic and ecosystem goals and the development tracks of a river basin and explore the various paths that can be followed to reach the goals. In particular, indicators are proposed for use in IRBM, which consider five aspects of river basins, specifically water, ecosystems, socioeconomic development, ability and data. To enable decision-making that promotes progress toward the goals, five scenarios, 17 sub-scenarios and 29 key parameters are provided that form a diverse set of scenarios corresponding to specific decision schemes. Moreover, these scenarios, sub-scenarios and parameters consider future uncertainties and both engineering and non-engineering measures that can be taken to achieve the co-development of human and natural factors in a basin.
Highlights
At the Rio+20 Conference in 2012, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were proposed based on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
We proposed that river basins are an appropriate spatial scale to promote the post-2015 development agenda of the UN and presented a framework that aids decision makers or policy makers to downscale the SDGs to a river basin level to facilitate the implementation of the SDGs by means of the features and problems of river basins
The framework includes two main parts that consist of establishing river basin sustainable development goals (RiSDGs) by converting the indicators of the SDGs into the sustainable development of a river basin based on the features and the problems of the basin and exploring sustainable development pathways by means of integration of the models and the scenarios analysis
Summary
At the Rio+20 Conference in 2012, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were proposed based on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The UN SDGs, as human development goals over 15 years, were proposed on a global scale and are intended to promote coordinated planning and development for the planet to survive and thrive in multiple dimensions These dimensions include time, space, society, the economy, ecology, and information. The key purpose of the framework is to seek a reasonable decision-making scheme to improve the implementation ability by means of using a scientific integrated model, scenario analysis, sustainable development assessment model, decision-making model and unambiguous river basin development goals based on SDGs. In the rest of this paper, we first describe how SDGs are converted into goals, targets and indicators for IRBM; these are evaluated using integrated models considering hydrological, ecological and economic processes driven by hybrid scenarios. The approach is expected to aid stakeholders in establishing SDGs for river basins and to assist decision makers in formulating development plans, establishing policies and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of decision-making during the implementation of the UN SDGs
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