Abstract
Environmental water management has become a global imperative in response to environmental degradation and the growing recognition that human well-being and livelihoods are critically dependent on freshwater ecosystems and the ecological functions and services they provide. Although a wide range of techniques and strategies for planning and implementing environmental flows has developed, many remain based on assumptions of hydrologic stationarity, typically focusing on restoring freshwater ecosystems to pre-development or ‘natural’ conditions. Climate change raises major challenges to this conventional approach, in part because of increasing uncertainties in patterns of water supply and demand. In such a rapidly changing world, the implementation of, and capacity of water managers to deliver flow regimes resembling historical hydrological patterns may be both unfeasible and undesirable. Additionally, as emphasis shifts from species-focused water allocation plans towards a greater appreciation of freshwater ecological functions and services, many of which will be influenced by climate change, a thorough re-evaluation of the conventional objectives, planning, delivery and monitoring of environmental water, including its role in the broader context of water and environmental management, is essential. Here, we identify the major challenges posed by climate change to environmental water management and discuss key adaptations and research needed to meet these challenges to achieve environmental and societal benefits and avoid maladaptation.
Highlights
Environmental water management (EWM) has become a global imperative in response to environmental degradation and the growing recognition that human well-being and livelihoods are critically dependent on freshwater ecosystems (Capon et al, 2013; Horne et al, 2017a)
Climate change in particular necessitates a revision of EWM, especially as it represents, in itself, an important strategy in society’s broader adaptation to climate change by promoting the protection and augmentation of increasingly critical ecosystem services (Capon and Bunn, 2015)
We begin by outlining the main implications of climate change for EWM
Summary
Environmental water management (EWM) has become a global imperative in response to environmental degradation and the growing recognition that human well-being and livelihoods are critically dependent on freshwater ecosystems (Capon et al, 2013; Horne et al, 2017a). Human water demands, especially for agriculture, are simultaneously expected to rise including those related to climate change mitigation and adaptation actions in other sectors, e.g., generation of hydroelectricity or plantations for carbon sequestration (Capon and Bunn, 2015), placing further pressure on already limited environmental water allocations Freshwater ecosystems, their biota, functions and services, are highly vulnerable to climate change due to high levels of exposure and sensitivity to projected changes and extreme events (Capon et al, 2013; Leigh et al, 2015; Peirson et al, 2015). Relevant flow metrics, e.g., the Range of Variability Approach (RVA; Richter et al, 1997)
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