Environmental flows from dams:the water framework directive

The EU water framework directive (WFD) provides a template for sustainable water management across Europe. The WFD requires the development of procedures to ensure appropriate mitigation of anthropogenic impacts on river ecosystems resulting from water abstraction and impoundments. It is widely ackn...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering Sustainability
Main Authors: Acreman, M., Aldrick, J., Binnie, C., Black, A., Cowx, I., Dawson, H., Dunbar, M., Extence, C., Hannaford, J., Harby, A., Holmes, N., Jarritt, N., Old, G., Peirson, G., Webb, J., Wood, P.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2009
Subjects:
dams
barrages & reservoirs
hydrology & water resources
water supply
SPAWNING ATLANTIC SALMON
RIVERS
STREAM
VARIABILITY
MANAGEMENT
HABITAT
INDEXES
REGIMES
FISH
Atlantic salmon
Online Access:https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/publications/c7d8ad6b-5264-45da-8ee2-4fa4e00dc757
https://doi.org/10.1680/ensu.2009.162.1.13
Description
Summary:The EU water framework directive (WFD) provides a template for sustainable water management across Europe. The WFD requires the development of procedures to ensure appropriate mitigation of anthropogenic impacts on river ecosystems resulting from water abstraction and impoundments. It is widely acknowledged that alterations to flow regime impact on riverine ecosystems. As a result, hydromorphology, which includes the hydrological regime, is embedded within the WFD as a supporting element to achieve good ecological status (GES). Environmental flow releases from impoundments such as reservoir dams will need to be implemented to mitigate impacts from their construction and operation. This paper outlines the process involved in the analysis of available scientific information and the development of guidance criteria for the setting of environmental flow release regimes for UK rivers. The paper describes two methods-developed by round-table expert knowledge and discussions and supported by available data-for implementation of the WFD for rivers subject to impoundments. The first is a method for preliminary assessment of a water body to determine if it is likely to fail to achieve GES because of changes to the flow regime (indexed by simple flow regime statistics) in systems where appropriate biological assessment methods are limited or currently unavailable. The second is a method for defining an environmental flow regime release based on the requirements of riverine ecological communities and indicator organisms for basic elements (building blocks) of the natural flow regime.

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