Emerging Concepts for Integrating Human and Environmental Water Needs in River Basin Management

摘要

The key to successful water and river management is the advancement of holistic approaches that seek to benefit human societies by sustaining the full range of resources created by rivers, including both physical and ecological services. This report describes the results of discussions held at the University of Birmingham, UK, during which participants sought to fill the conceptual gap that exists among water resource planners, flood engineers, and ecologists. Participants, including experts from Europe and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, attempted to advance and integrate concepts related to reference systems and sustainability and related to fully integrated water resource management within and between river basins. In a context of increasing pressures on (a) water supplies, wastewater treatment, and needs for flood management, (b) agricultural and forestry production systems, (c) land for urban expansion, and (d) nature conservation, recreation, and landscape restoration, participants discussed the primary challenge of managing changing rivers (changing flows, mobile sediments, and moving channels) in a diverse, dynamic, and highly connected system.