In developing regions of the world, valuable and vulnerable water resources are being used excessively. Through water resource development, multiple water quality, flow, and other stressors threaten the sustainable use and protection of these resources. Few attempts have been made to evaluate the synergistic effects of multiple water quality and flow stressors to socioecological attributes of systems that we care about in integrated water resource management. Regional scale ecological risk assessments evaluate the probable negative effects of multiple stressors, affecting dynamic ecosystems on multiple spatial scales. The present study demonstrates how multiple water quality, flow, and other stressors that cumulatively affect the sustainability of the lower Thukela River, South Africa, can be evaluated using the relative risk model, Bayesian network (RRM‐BN) approach. This risk assessment facilitated the establishment of minimum water quality and flow requirements to maintain the sustainability of this system and make water resource use and protection trade‐off decisions. In this case study, the risk of 10 water resources use and protection scenarios were evaluated in a regional scale ecological risk assessment of the socioecological attributes of the lower Thukela River. In addition we evaluated the consequences associated with these scenarios based on risk pathways of multiple sources, stressors, and receptors to endpoints that represent the sustainable vision of multiple stakeholders of the system. The outcomes of the present study have contributed to new evidence to improve the water resource use efficiency and protect important resources of the lower Thukela River, to ensure sustainability. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:110–130. © 2020 SETAC

中文翻译：

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水量和质量压力因子的风险评估，以平衡弱势水资源的使用和保护

在世界发展中地区，宝贵的脆弱水资源正在被过度使用。通过水资源开发，多种水质，流量和其他压力因素威胁着这些资源的可持续利用和保护。很少有人尝试评估多种水质和流量压力因子对我们在综合水资源管理中关注的系统的社会生态属性的协同效应。区域尺度的生态风险评估评估了多种压力源可能造成的负面影响，从而影响了多个空间尺度上的动态生态系统。本研究表明，如何使用相对风险模型来评估多种水质，流量和其他压力因素，这些因素会累计影响南非Thukela河下游的可持续性，贝叶斯网络（RRM-BN）方法。这项风险评估有助于建立最低水质和流量要求，以维持该系统的可持续性，并做出水资源利用和保护权衡的决定。在本案例研究中，在图克拉河下游的社会生态属性的区域规模生态风险评估中评估了10种水资源使用和保护情景的风险。此外，我们基于多种来源，压力源和受体到端点的风险路径，评估了与这些场景相关的后果，这些风险路径代表了系统多个利益相关者的可持续愿景。本研究的结果为提高水资源利用效率和保护图克拉河下游的重要资源提供了新的证据，Integr环境评估管理2021; 17：110-130。©2020 SETAC