Queensland Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation, GPO Box 5078, Brisbane, QLD, 4001, Australia.
Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Brisbane, QLD, 4000, Australia.
Environ Manage. 2018 Mar;61(3):358-374. doi: 10.1007/s00267-017-0850-3. Epub 2017 Mar 27.
For several decades there has been recognition that water resource development alters river flow regimes and impacts ecosystem values. Determining strategies to protect or restore flow regimes to achieve ecological outcomes is a focus of water policy and legislation in many parts of the world. However, consideration of existing environmental flow assessment approaches for application in Queensland identified deficiencies precluding their adoption. Firstly, in managing flows and using ecosystem condition as an indicator of effectiveness, many approaches ignore the fact that river ecosystems are subjected to threatening processes other than flow regime alteration. Secondly, many focus on providing flows for responses without considering how often they are necessary to sustain ecological values in the long-term. Finally, few consider requirements at spatial-scales relevant to the desired outcomes, with frequent focus on individual places rather than the regions supporting sustainability. Consequently, we developed a risk-based ecohydrological approach that identifies ecosystem values linked to desired ecological outcomes, is sensitive to flow alteration and uses indicators of broader ecosystem requirements. Monitoring and research is undertaken to quantify flow-dependencies and ecological modelling is used to quantify flow-related ecological responses over an historical flow period. The relative risk from different flow management scenarios can be evaluated at relevant spatial-scales. This overcomes the deficiencies identified above and provides a robust and useful foundation upon which to build the information needed to support water planning decisions. Application of the risk assessment approach is illustrated here by two case studies.
几十年来，人们已经认识到水资源开发改变了河流的水流状况，并影响了生态系统的价值。确定保护或恢复水流状况以实现生态目标的策略是世界许多地区水政策和法规的重点。然而，在考虑应用于昆士兰州的现有环境水流评估方法时，发现存在缺陷，无法采用这些方法。首先，在管理水流和将生态系统状况用作有效性指标时，许多方法忽略了这样一个事实，即河流生态系统不仅受到水流状况改变的威胁，还受到其他威胁过程的影响。其次，许多方法侧重于提供水流以响应，但没有考虑到在长期内维持生态价值所需的水流频率。最后，很少有方法考虑到与预期结果相关的空间尺度的要求，频繁关注个别地点而不是支持可持续性的区域。因此，我们开发了一种基于风险的生态水文学方法，该方法确定了与预期生态结果相关的生态系统价值，对水流变化敏感，并使用更广泛的生态系统需求指标。通过监测和研究来量化水流依赖性，使用生态模型来量化历史水流期内与水流相关的生态响应。可以在相关的空间尺度上评估不同水流管理情景的相对风险。这克服了上述缺陷，为建立支持水规划决策所需的信息提供了一个稳健而有用的基础。本文通过两个案例研究说明了风险评估方法的应用。
