W3 Seminar – Balancing environmental flows with consumptive uses in a water scarce environment

Details

Speaker:
Eric Stein, Ph.D., Department Head, Biology Department, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project

Title:
Balancing environmental flows with consumptive uses in a water scarce environment: Ecohydrology tools from California

Abstract:
Implementation of comprehensive environmental flow programs for freshwater ecosystems has never been more urgent. Globally, human population growth and activities are placing increasing pressure on freshwater resources, leading to competition for ever scarcer water and overallocation. Coupled with climate change and increased incidences of drought and flooding, these shifting patterns of water use, and allocation have severely impacted flow magnitudes, durations, and timing in rivers around the and caused widespread degradation of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem conditions. Integrated assessment tools can help develop flow allocation programs that aim to balance ecological and human resource needs. The California Environmental Flows Framework (CEFF) is a collaboratively developed approach to establish environmental flow recommendations at regional scales. CEFF uses a functional flows approach, which focuses on protecting a broad suite of ecological, geomorphic, and biogeochemical functions instead of specific species or habitats, and can be applied consistently across diverse stream types and spatial scales. CEFF includes a process for considering non-ecological flow needs to produce a final set of environmental flow recommendations that aim to balance water needs of all desired uses. CEFF was developed via a broad inclusive process that included technical experts across multiple disciplines, representatives from federal and state agencies, and stakeholders and potential end-users from across the state. The resulting framework is therefore not associated with any single agency or regulatory program but can be applied under different contexts, mandates and end-user priorities. Although developed for California the approach can be readily transferred to other regions to inform development of environmental flow programs.