Abstract
Assessing the health of hydrological systems is vital for the conservation of river ecosystems. The indicators of hydrologic alteration are among the most widely used parameters. They have been traditionally assessed at the scale of river reaches. However, the use of such indicators at the basin scale is relevant for water resource management since there is an urgent need to meet environmental objectives to mitigate the effects of present and future climatic conditions. This work proposes a methodology to estimate the indicators of hydrological alteration at the basin scale in regulated systems based on simulations with a water allocation model. The methodology is illustrated through a case study in the Iberian Peninsula (the Duero River basin), where different minimum flow scenarios were defined, assessing their effects on both the hydrological alteration and the demand guarantees. The results indicate that it is possible to improve the hydrological status of some subsystems of the basin without affecting the water demand supplies. Thus, the methodology presented in this work will help decision makers to optimize water management while improving the hydrological status of the river basins.
Highlights
A healthy river is a logical consequence of scientific principles, legal mandates and changing social values [1]
This study presents a methodology that integrates the assessment and improvement of indicators of hydrological alteration (IHA) in conjunction with the analysis of multiple water management scenarios with a water allocation model
The improved IHA proposed in this work are useful indicators to verify the hydrological status at the basin scale
Summary
A healthy river is a logical consequence of scientific principles, legal mandates and changing social values [1]. This concept can be treated differently according to the type of water user. It is reasonable to think that even if not all of the system variables are identified, the conservation of a sustainable flow regime is enough of a guarantee of a good ecological condition, assuming that there are adequate physicochemical water parameters. The inclusion of the environmental flow concept has encouraged more ecologically informed water management [3]. A well-defined environmental flow must consider numerous variables to establish the river flow regimes
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