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Evaluating the Ecological Benefits of Management Actions to Complement Environmental Flows in River Systems

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Abstract

Globally, many river systems are under stress due to overconsumption of water. Governments have responded with programmes to deliver environmental water to improve environmental outcomes. Although such programmes are essential, they may not be sufficient to achieve all desired environmental outcomes. The benefits of environmental water allocation may be improved using ‘complementary measures’, which are non-flow-based actions, such as infrastructure works, vegetation management and pest control. The value of complementary measures is recognised globally, but their ecological benefits are rarely well understood, either because there is limited experience with their application, or the importance of context- and location-specific factors make it difficult to generalise benefits. In this study, we developed an approach to evaluate complementary measures at different levels of detail as a mechanism to aid decision-making. For systems that require a rapid, high-level evaluation, we propose a score-based multi-criteria benefit assessment module. If more ecological detail is necessary, we outline a method based on conceptual models, expert elicitation and probability assessment. These results are used to populate a cumulative benefit assessment tool. The tool evaluates the benefits of proposed measures in the wider context by including variables such as flow, dependence on ongoing maintenance and additional ecological values. We illustrate our approach through application to the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia. As many water recovery programmes mature into their evaluation phases, there is an increasing need to evaluate the ecological benefits of including complementary measures in the toolkit available to policy makers.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the substantial contributions of expert panel members—Terry Hillman, Nick Bond, Barbara Robson and Richard Kingsford (RK)—to the project. RK also provided expertise to the waterbird conceptual models developed in the FGA. We thank Sean Chua and Linda Merrin for providing technical assistance and Ashmita Sengupta for providing comments on an early draft of the paper.

Funding

The original research that formed the basis of this article was co-funded by the Murray–Darling Basin Authority and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Land and Water, Dutton Park, 4102, QLD, Australia

    Sam Nicol

  2. Water and Environment Program, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    J. Angus Webb

  3. Centre for Regional and Rural Futures, Deakin University, Locked Bag 20000, Geelong, VIC, 3220, Australia

    Rebecca E. Lester

  4. Ecological Associates Pty Ltd, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Marcus Cooling

  5. Fisheries and Wetlands Consulting, Portarlington, VIC, 3223, Australia

    Paul Brown

  6. Centre for Freshwater Ecosystems, La Trobe University, PO Box 821, Wodonga, VIC, Australia

    Paul Brown

  7. CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra, 2601, ACT, Australia

    Ian Cresswell, Heather M. McGinness, Susan M. Cuddy, Daryl Nielsen & Danial Stratford

  8. Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, PO Box 789, Albury, NSW, Australia

    Lee J. Baumgartner & Martin Mallen-Cooper

  9. Fishway Consulting Services, 8 Tudor Pl, St Ives Chase, NSW, 2075, Australia

    Martin Mallen-Cooper

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  1. Sam Nicol
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Correspondence to Sam Nicol.

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Nicol, S., Webb, J.A., Lester, R.E. et al. Evaluating the Ecological Benefits of Management Actions to Complement Environmental Flows in River Systems. Environmental Management 67, 277–290 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-020-01395-1

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