Definition of Ecological Flow Using IHA and IARI as an Operative Procedure for Water Management

Abstract

It is widely recognized that the hydrological regime of natural flow plays a primary and crucial role in influencing the physical condition of habitats, which, in turn, determines the biotic composition and sustainability of aquatic ecosystems. The current hydro-ecological understanding states that all flow components might be considered as operational targets for water management, starting from base flows (including low flows) to high and flood regimes in terms of magnitude, frequency, duration, timing, and rate of change. Several codes have been developed and applied on different case studies in order to define common tools to be implemented for Eflow assessment. This work deals with the definition of an operative procedure for the evaluation of the Eflow monthly distribution to be adopted in a generic watercourse cross-section for sustainable surface water resource management and exploitation. The methodology proposes the application of the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration methodology (IHA by TNC) coupled to the valuation of the Index of Hydrological Regime Alteration (IARI by ISPRA) as an operative tool to define the ecological flow in each monitoring cross-section to support sustainable water resource management and planning. The case study of the Agri River in Basilicata (Southern Italy) is presented. The analyses were carried out based on monthly discharge data derived by applying the HEC-Hydrological Modeling System at the basin scale using the daily rain data measurements obtained by the regional rainfall gauge stations and calibrated through the observed inlet water discharge registered at the Lago del Pertusillo reservoir station.

Using Game Theory Algorithm to Identify Critical Watersheds based on Environmental Flow Components and Hydrological Indicators

“…Consequently, according to reliable sources, these four physical indicators are the most important parameters in the study of NRF, and therefore these indicators were used for the further analysis. One of the main reasons for selecting these indicators in this study was that according to (Belay et al, 2010;Greco et al, 2021;Tegos et al, 2018), with the occurrence of small oods, aquatic animals and other living organisms are able to move downstream and establish new habitats in oodplain areas. (Mathews and Richter, 2007) also stated that large oods affected the physical and biological structure of rivers, creating competition between species, and contributing to the formation of key habitats.…”

Soil moisture variations of wetland at different altitudes in desert regions, China

“…The hydrological landscape is classified according to different hydrogeographic conditions. Soil water transport in wetlands at arid and semi-arid areas mainly focuses on hydro-ecology, including ecological environment effects and Simulation of the hydro-ecological process of wetlands [32][33]. Soil water transport of wetlands in desert areas is obviously different from the wetlands in other ecological environment areas [34].…”

A Practical Approach for Environmental Flow Calculation to Support Ecosystem Management in Wujiang River, China

“…The basic environmental flow refers to the minimum value of discharge that needs to be maintained in a river to ensure basic conditions for existing ecosystems [ 40 ], according to appropriate criteria based on hydrological and environmental conditions.…”