A framework for determining recommended environmental flows for balancing agricultural and ecosystem water demands

Abstract

We developed a water-use conflict analysis framework to determine environmental flows that optimally balance water requirements for ecosystems and human activities. This framework considers trade-offs between water use for ecosystem health and agricultural processes and considers temporal variations in hydrological processes. It comprises three separate models that (a) analyse water balance between agriculture and initial environmental flows, (b) identify outcomes of varying balances in water use, and (c) determine recommended environmental flows for sustainable water use. We applied the framework to a region downstream of the Yellow River in China. Based on our results, we recommend a water management plan that allocates more water to ecosystem services than is currently allocated and that does not increase predicted economic losses. In addition, we found that recommended flows change depending on the ecological objectives considered and whether technologies or methodologies that improve water-use efficiency are employed. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Guest editor M. AcremanCitation Pang, A., Sun, T., and Yang, Z., 2014. A framework for determining recommended environmental flows for balancing agricultural and ecosystem water demands. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 890–903.