Editorial: Implementing Environmental Flows: Lessons for Policy and Practice

摘要

Water resources and freshwater ecosystems are under pressure from a growing human population,thirstier lifestyles, and climate change (UNESCO and UN water, 2020). Consequently, water-relatedrisks to society are increasing (World Economic Forum, 2020) and freshwater biodiversity is rapidlydeclining (Grooten, 2018). The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include targets forimproved water management, including SDG 6.4, which stipulates sustainable water withdrawals,and SDG 6.6, aimed at halting the degradation of water-related ecosystems. The hydrologicalregimes of rivers and other wetlands can be regarded as a litmus test of whether these targets are met(Tickner and Acreman, 2013). Environmental flow assessment (EFA) is the science-based processof determining appropriate flow regimes for individual water bodies given environmental, socioeconomicand cultural objectives. Researchers have developed sophisticated EFA tools (Acremanet al., 2014; Poff et al., 2017) but implementation of environmental flows has been problematic, andresearch into the challenges of implementation is scarce.