U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | March 20th, 2008
Summary
Worldwide, water conflicts are escalating as cities, industries, agriculture, and energy producers compete for limited freshwater supplies. At the same time, there is a g
Worldwide, water conflicts are escalating as cities, industries, agriculture, and energy producers compete for limited freshwater supplies. At the same time, there is a growing awareness of the need to maintain adequate freshwater flows in rivers, lakes, floodplains, aquifers, and estuaries to sustain biodiversity and the many benefits derived from the healthy, functioning ecosystems upon which local communities and economies depend. Efficient, integrated water resource management systems help governments provide for growing human populations while protecting and restoring healthy freshwater ecosystems.
The integration of ecological considerations into water management has been hampered by the difficulty, cost, and time required for determining environmental flows -- the quantity, timing, and quality of water flows required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and the human livelihoods and well-being that depend on these ecosystems. Environmental flow assessments scientifically evaluate tradeoffs between alteration of natural water flow patterns by humans and consequent changes in ecological health.