Editorial: Implementing Environmental Flows: Lessons for Policy and Practice

Water resources and freshwater ecosystems are under pressure from a growing human population, thirstier lifestyles, and climate change (UNESCO and UN water, 2020). Consequently, water-related risks to society are increasing (World Economic Forum, 2020) and freshwater biodiversity is rapidly declining (Grooten, 2018). The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include targets for improved water management, including SDG 6.4, which stipulates sustainable water withdrawals, and SDG 6.6, aimed at halting the degradation of water-related ecosystems. The hydrological regimes of rivers and other wetlands can be regarded as a litmus test of whether these targets are met (Tickner and Acreman, 2013). Environmental flow assessment (EFA) is the science-based process of determining appropriate flow regimes for individual water bodies given environmental, socio-economic and cultural objectives. Researchers have developed sophisticated EFA tools (Acreman et al., 2014; Poff et al., 2017) but implementation of environmental flows has been problematic, and research into the challenges of implementation is scarce.