Trade-Offs between Human and Environment: Challenges for Regional Water Management under Changing Conditions

Elmira Hassanzadeh

doi:10.3390/w11091773

Abstract

Water resource systems are under unprecedented pressure mainly due to rapid socio-economic growth, weak water and land management decisions, as well as variability and change in climate conditions. These pressures have disrupted the functionality of freshwater ecosystems and have generated water management challenges in various regions across the globe. Here, we showcase the potential trade-offs in the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada, between upstream human activities and downstream environmental needs under changing water availability conditions. We showed that an increase in irrigation areas can boost provincial economy but alter timing, magnitude and rhythmicity of the peak flows reaching downstream ecosystems. This indicates that the business as usual management might not be able to handle such emerging challenges. To improve water management, we argue that there is a need to better represent the dynamic interactions between human water use and water quantity and quality conditions and their influence on ecosystems. In addition, impact assessment frameworks need to be improved to better identify system vulnerabilities under changing natural and anthropogenic conditions. Moreover, due to the key role of stakeholders in adopting land and water management decisions, their viewpoints need to be understood and included in management decisions.

Highlights

Streamflow regime plays a key role in shaping the structure and health of water environments [1].Human activities directly and indirectly have disrupted the natural water system conditions and have put enormous pressure on freshwater ecosystems [2,3,4]
Socio-economic developments, weak land and water management decisions and changes in climate conditions have altered natural streamflow regime, which are critical for sustaining freshwater environments
Water in Saskatchewan is used for various socio-economic activities and passes through the Saskatchewan River

Summary

Introduction

Streamflow regime plays a key role in shaping the structure and health of water environments [1].Human activities directly and indirectly have disrupted the natural water system conditions and have put enormous pressure on freshwater ecosystems [2,3,4]. Water management coupled with land use and land management activities have altered natural streamflow regime and sediment transports, with negative impacts on downstream water environments [8,9,10] Such activities have directly introduced pollution to freshwater resources and degraded ecosystems [11,12,13,14]. Human viewpoints towards overexploitation of water resources to “make money from every drop” have considerably influenced water and land management decisions to favor economic growth, without leaving much high-quality water for the downstream environments [15,16,17,18,19] This disruption in natural environments, in turn, has caused irreversible consequences for both human and ecosystem in various regions since last century [20,21].

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Discussion

Conclusion