首页|Integrating the social, hydrological and ecological dimensions of freshwater health: The Freshwater Health Index

Integrating the social, hydrological and ecological dimensions of freshwater health: The Freshwater Health Index

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  • Elsevier
Degradation of freshwater ecosystems and the services they provide is a primary cause of increasing water insecurity, raising the need for integrated solutions to freshwater management. While methods for characterizing the multi-faceted challenges of managing freshwater ecosystems abound, they tend to emphasize either social or ecological dimensions and fall short of being truly integrative. This paper suggests that management for sustainability of freshwater systems needs to consider the linkages between human water uses, freshwater ecosystems and governance. We present a conceptualization of freshwater resources as part of an integrated social-ecological system and propose a set of corresponding indicators to monitor freshwater ecosystem health and to highlight priorities for management. We demonstrate an application of this new framework —the Freshwater Health Index (FHI) — in the Dongjiang River Basin in southern China, where stakeholders are addressing multiple and conflicting freshwater demands. By combining empirical and modeled datasets with surveys to gauge stakeholders' preferences and elicit expert information about governance mechanisms, the FHI helps stakeholders understand the status of freshwater ecosystems in their basin, how ecosystems are being manipulated to enhance or decrease water-related services, and how well the existing water resource management regime is equipped to govern these dynamics over time. This framework helps to operationalize a truly integrated approach to water resource management by recognizing the interplay between governance, stakeholders, freshwater ecosystems and the services they provide.

Freshwater sustainabilityWater governanceStakeholder engagementEcosystem servicesFreshwater ecosystems

Derek Vollmer、Kashif Shaad、Nicholas J. Souter、Tracy Farrell、David Dudgeon、Caroline A. Sullivan、Isabelle Fauconnier、Glen M. MacDonald、Matthew P. McCartney、Alison G. Power、Amy McNally、Sandy J. Andelman、Timothy Capon、Naresh Devineni、Chusit Apirumanekul、Cho Nam Ng、M. Rebecca Shaw、Raymond Yu Wang、Chengguang Lai、Zhaoli Wang、Helen M. Regan

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Conservation International, Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science

Conservation International, Greater Mekong Program

School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong

School of Science, Environment and Engineering, Southern Cross University

International Union for Conservation of Nature, Global Water Programme, IUCN Headquarters

Department of Geography, University of California,The Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California

International Water Management Institute

Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University

Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland,Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Conservation International, Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science,Organization for Tropical Studies

CSIRO Land and Water

Department of Civil Engineering, City University of New York,NOAA-Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center, City University of New York

Stockholm Environment Institute, Chulalongkorn University

Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong

World Wildlife Fund

Center for Public Administration Research, School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University

School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, South China University of Technology

Biology Department, University of California

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2018

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.040

Science of the Total Environment

Science of the Total Environment

AHCIEI
ISSN：0048-9697
年,卷(期)：2018.627(Jun.15)
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