Environmental Flow Assessment for Indian Rivers:The Need for Interdisciplinary Studies

Abstract

Environmental flow requirements of a river are often defined as a suite of flow discharges of certain magnitude, timing, frequency and duration. These flows ensure a regime capable of sustaining a complex set of aquatic habitats and ecosystem processes, and are referred to as ‘environmental flows’, ‘environmental water requirements’, ‘environmental flow requirements’, ‘environmental water demand’, etc. Flow is considered as the master variable because it exerts great impact on aquatic habitat, river morphology, biotic life, river connectivity and water quality.