The Ecologically Sustainable Water Management Framework

Related Information IHA Software Environmental Flow Prescriptions Flow Restoration Database Publications

TNC Experience with ESWM • Green River, Kentucky • Roanoke River, North Carolina • Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, Georgia/Florida/Alabama • Delaware River Basin • Savannah River, South Carolina & Georgia • Green River, Utah • San Pedro River, Arizona and Sonora, Mexico • Sustainable Rivers Project, The Nature Conservancy and Corps of Engineers

ESWM Framework Diagram:                                 Learn more >>

This framework is depicted as a six-step process:

1. Define environmental flow requirements:
   develop initial numerical estimates of key aspects of river flow necessary to sustain native species and natural ecosystem functions;
2. Determine the influence of human activities:
   accounting for human uses of water, both current and future, through development of a computerized hydrologic simulation model that facilitates examination of human-induced alterations to river flow regimes;
3. Identify areas of incompatibility:
   assessing incompatibilities between human and ecosystem needs with particular attention to their spatial and temporal character;
4. Search for collaborative solution:
   collaboratively searching for solutions to resolve incompatibilities;
5. Conduct water management experiments:
   design and implement water management experiments to resolve critical uncertainties that frustrate efforts to integrate human and ecosystem needs; and
6. Design and implement an adaptive management plan:
   using the knowledge gained in steps 1-5, create an adaptive management program to facilitate ecologically sustainable water management for the long term.

The ESWM framework is discussed in detail in a paper published in Ecological Applications:

Ecologically Sustainable Water Management: Managing River Flows for Ecological Integrity (.pdf file, 530kb)

(authored by Brian Richter, Ruth Mathews, Robert Wigington and David Harrison).