A simulation tool for managing environmental flows in regulated rivers

2015 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 117-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.M.M. Steinfeld ◽  
R.T. Kingsford ◽  
E.C. Webster ◽  
A. Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Flows ◽  
Simulation Tool ◽  
Regulated Rivers

Modelling the economic impact of environmental flows for regulated rivers in New South Wales, Australia

2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 157-164
Author(s):  
R.T. Jayasuriya
Keyword(s):  
Economic Impact ◽  
Environmental Flows ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Regulated Rivers ◽  
Community Based ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Groundwater Aquifers

The management of water resources across Australia is undergoing fundamental reform in line with the priorities identified by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in 1994. This includes reforms to the specification of property rights, the way the resource is shared between the environment, irrigators and other users, charges for water use and the operational management of the river systems. In New South Wales (NSW), a series of water sharing plans (WSPs) is being developed for each water source in the State including regulated rivers, unregulated rivers and groundwater aquifers. These plans, which are the mechanisms by which COAG reforms are being implemented, are being developed by community-based water management committees (WMCs). The role of the WMCs is to develop a plan that achieves a balance between environmental, economic and social outcomes. NSW Agriculture has assisted a number of WMCs by quantifying the economic impact of proposed WSP options on the irrigation community. This paper outlines the approach taken by NSW Agriculture to quantifying economic impacts on irrigators in regulated catchments and provides results of case studies in the Lachlan River Catchment which is heavily developed for irrigation.

Australian waterbirds - time and space travellers in dynamic desert landscapes

2010 ◽  
Vol 61 (8) ◽  
pp. 875 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. T. Kingsford ◽  
D. A. Roshier ◽  
J. L. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Resource Availability ◽  
Environmental Flows ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Aquatic Organisms ◽  
River Regulation ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Regulated Rivers ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽  
Resource Patches

Australia’s waterbirds are mostly nomadic, capitalising on highly variable aquatic resources in the arid interior (70% of the continent) for feeding and breeding. Waterbirds, unlike most aquatic organisms, can move between catchments, exploiting habitat wherever it occurs. In Australia, patterns of resource availability for waterbirds are mostly pulsed with peaks of productivity, coinciding with flooding and differing in time and space, affecting individuals, species and functional groups of waterbirds. Australian waterbirds are no different from waterbirds elsewhere, with their behaviour reflecting broad-scale resource availability. They respond to changing patterns of resource distribution, with rapid movements at spatial and temporal scales commensurate with the dynamics of the resource. The most serious conservation threat to waterbirds is a bottleneck in resource availability, leading to population declines, increasingly forced by anthropogenic impacts. River regulation and other threats (e.g. draining) reduce the availability of wetland habitat and decrease the probability of viable resource patches. It is axiomatic that waterbirds need water and such population bottlenecks may occur when the availability of water across the continent is limited. The rehabilitation of regulated rivers with environmental flows and protection of naturally flowing rivers in the arid region are essential for long-term sustainability of Australia’s waterbird populations.

Provision of environmental flows promotes spawning of a nationally threatened diadromous fish

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 159 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. M. Koster ◽  
F. Amtstaetter ◽  
D. R. Dawson ◽  
P. Reich ◽  
J. R. Morrongiello
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Flows ◽  
Environmental Flow ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Spawning Activity ◽  
Regulated Rivers ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Effective Delivery ◽  
Environmental Requirements ◽  
Australian Grayling ◽  
Species Ecology

Detailed understanding of flow-ecology requirements for aquatic biota underpins the use of environmental flows as an effective restoration tool in regulated rivers. However, flow recommendations are often overly simplistic and insufficient to provide the necessary environmental requirements for these biota. This is often due to failure to gain and integrate information on individual species ecology and, by using coarse generalisations, about flow-ecology responses. To inform more effective delivery of environmental flows, we investigated spawning responses of the threatened Australian grayling (Prototroctes maraena) to environmental flows over 2 years in three coastal rivers. Spawning activity was highest during within-channel flow pulses, especially during periods of environmental flow delivery. Peak spawning occurred in late autumn and was positively related to flow duration. This result has important implications for environmental flows management in regions where water is scarce and there is potential conflict among multiple users because, for Australian grayling, it is not necessarily the volume of water released that is important, but how the flow is delivered. Our study demonstrated the importance of quantifying flow-ecology relationships via targeted monitoring and research so as to develop appropriate flow regimes, and should encourage managers to examine more critically the logic behind generalised environmental flow objectives.

Constraints on the recovery of invertebrate assemblages in a regulated snowmelt river during a tributary-sourced environmental flow regime

2011 ◽  
Vol 62 (12) ◽  
pp. 1407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Brooks ◽  
Matthew Russell ◽  
Robyn Bevitt ◽  
Matthew Dasey
Keyword(s):  
Flow Regime ◽  
Environmental Flows ◽  
River Regulation ◽  
Environmental Flow ◽  
Regulated Rivers ◽  
Macroinvertebrate Assemblages ◽  
Fine Sediments ◽  
Tributary Stream ◽  
Invertebrate Assemblages ◽  
And Control

The impacts of river regulation on aquatic biota have been extensively studied, but long-term assessments of the restoration of biota by environmental flows and the principal mechanisms of recovery have rarely occurred. We assessed whether the provision of an environmental flow regime (EFR) via the decommissioning of an aqueduct on a tributary stream altered downstream macroinvertebrate assemblages in the highly regulated Snowy River, Australia. Macroinvertebrate assemblages of the Snowy River, reference and control sites remained distinct despite the provision of environmental flows. Invertebrate assemblages detrimentally affected by regulation probably remained impaired due to either constraints on colonisation from the tributary stream (dispersal constraints) or unsuitable local environmental conditions in the Snowy River caused by flow regulation (e.g. high levels of fine sediments, elevated temperature regime) suppressing new colonists or recovery of extant populations. Our study showed that restoration may be ineffective if EFRs are too small to ameliorate local environmental factors constraining the recovery of affected biota. Other barriers to recovery, such as dispersal constraints, also need to be overcome. Successful restoration of regulated rivers using environmental flows requires an understanding of the mechanisms and pathways of recovery, together with identification and amelioration of any potential barriers to recovery.

Longitudinal trends in regulated rivers: a review and synthesis within the context of the serial discontinuity concept

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 136-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Eunsun Ellis ◽  
Nicholas Edward Jones
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Flows ◽  
Benthic Invertebrate ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Empirical Estimation ◽  
Resource Subsidies ◽  
River Continuum ◽  
Regulated Rivers ◽  
Continuum Concept ◽  
Serial Discontinuity Concept ◽  
Serial Discontinuity

Dams alter the geomorphology, water quality, temperature regime, and flow regime of lotic systems influencing the resources and habitat of fish, benthic invertebrates, and lower trophic levels. Since the inception of the river continuum concept and the serial discontinuity concept (SDC), biotic and abiotic impacts below impoundments have been the focus of many lotic studies. However, recovery gradients below dams are rarely examined in sufficient detail and no current synthesis of longitudinal impacts in regulated rivers exists. This understanding is needed to build ecological relationships in regulated rivers to inform environmental flows science and management. In this review, we provide evidence for SDC predictions on physical, chemical, and biological recovery in regulated rivers. Additionally, we determine how these changes are reflected in the benthic community. Our review suggests that two recovery gradients exist in regulated rivers: (1) a longer, thermal gradient taking up to hundreds of kilometres downstream; and (2) a shorter, resource subsidy gradient recovering within 1–4 km downstream of an impoundment. Total benthic invertebrate abundance varies considerably, with both increases and reductions observed at near-dam sites and varying in recovery downstream. Much of this variability stems from the degree of flow alteration and resource subsidies from the upstream reservoir. In contrast, benthic diversity is often reduced below dams irrespective of dam location and operation with little recovery observed downstream. The community at near-dam sites is largely composed of filter-feeding invertebrates which are quickly replaced downstream, while stoneflies are reduced below impoundments with limited downstream recovery. Despite a lack of formal testing, studies support SDC predictions. The SDC still provides a useful theoretical framework for hypothesis testing, and future studies should further expand the SDC to include empirical estimation within the context of the landscape.

Flows, ecology and people: is there room for cultural demands in the assessment of environmental flows?

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (7) ◽  
pp. 1777-1781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Magdaleno
Keyword(s):  
Review Paper ◽  
Environmental Flows ◽  
Flow Patterns ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Aquatic Systems ◽  
Regulated Rivers ◽  
Water Requirements ◽  
Multiple Interactions

Abstract The science and practice of environmental flows – aimed at the protection of ecosystem values and functions in regulated rivers – has progressively recognized the relevance of incorporating socio-cultural demands of local communities in the calculation of water requirements of rivers' habitats and services. This review paper synthesizes the concept of cultural flows, and presents the main approaches explored or conducted up to this date to provide such flows in rivers of different regions and typology. This work highlights the necessity of integrating cultural demands in future attempts to protect and restore altered flow patterns, due to the multiple interactions between flow, ecology and people which typically characterize rivers and other aquatic systems.

scholarly journals Conservation management of rivers and wetlands under climate change - a synthesis

2011 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard T. Kingsford
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Adaptive Management ◽  
Conservation Management ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Environmental Flows ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Flow Regimes ◽  
Regulated Rivers ◽  
Socioeconomic Impacts ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales

Dams, diversion of water, invasive species, overharvesting and pollution are degrading rivers and wetlands. Climate change may exacerbate impacts of these threats through predicted reductions in rainfall and increased temperature, decreasing flow and altering timing and variability of flow regimes. Papers in this special issue identify conservation-management strategies for wetlands and rivers through recovery of flow regimes, alteration of dam operations, protected-area management and improved governance and adaptive management. On most regulated rivers, flow regimes should be recovered by increasing environmental flows. Alteration of dam operations can also improve river health through structures on dams (e.g. fishways, multi-level offtakes), reinstating floodplains and improving flow delivery. Further, time-limited licensing for dams and accompanying regular assessments of safety and of environmental and socioeconomic impacts could improve operations. Protected areas remain the core strategy for conservation, with recent improvements in their identification and management, supported by analytical tools that integrate across large spatial and temporal scales. Finally, effective conservation requires good governance and rigorous adaptive management. Conservation management of rivers and wetlands can be significantly improved by adopting these strategies although considerable challenges remain, given increasing human pressures on freshwater resources, compounded by the impacts of climate change.

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