Integrating the social, hydrological and ecological dimensions of freshwater health: The Freshwater Health Index

Derek Vollmer; Kashif Shaad; Nicholas J Souter; Tracy Farrell; David Dudgeon; Caroline A Sullivan; Isabelle Fauconnier; Glen M MacDonald; Matthew P McCartney; Alison G Power; Amy McNally; Sandy J Andelman; Timothy Capon; Naresh Devineni; Chusit Apirumanekul; Cho Nam Ng; M Rebecca Shaw; Raymond Yu Wang; Chengguang Lai; Zhaoli Wang; Helen M Regan

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.040

Integrating the social, hydrological and ecological dimensions of freshwater health: The Freshwater Health Index

Sci Total Environ. 2018 Jun 15:627:304-313. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.040. Epub 2018 Feb 3.

Authors

Derek Vollmer¹, Kashif Shaad², Nicholas J Souter³, Tracy Farrell³, David Dudgeon⁴, Caroline A Sullivan⁵, Isabelle Fauconnier⁶, Glen M MacDonald⁷, Matthew P McCartney⁸, Alison G Power⁹, Amy McNally¹⁰, Sandy J Andelman¹¹, Timothy Capon¹², Naresh Devineni¹³, Chusit Apirumanekul¹⁴, Cho Nam Ng¹⁵, M Rebecca Shaw¹⁶, Raymond Yu Wang¹⁷, Chengguang Lai¹⁸, Zhaoli Wang¹⁸, Helen M Regan¹⁹

Affiliations

¹ Conservation International, Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science, Arlington, VA 22202, USA. Electronic address: dvollmer@conservation.org.
² Conservation International, Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science, Arlington, VA 22202, USA.
³ Conservation International, Greater Mekong Program, Phnom Penh 12000, Cambodia.
⁴ School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
⁵ School of Science, Environment and Engineering, Southern Cross University, NSW 2480, Australia.
⁶ International Union for Conservation of Nature, Global Water Programme, IUCN Headquarters, 1196 Gland, Switzerland.
⁷ Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; The Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁸ International Water Management Institute, Vientiane, Laos.
⁹ Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14883, USA.
¹⁰ Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA; Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
¹¹ Conservation International, Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science, Arlington, VA 22202, USA; Organization for Tropical Studies, Durham, NC 27705, USA.
¹² CSIRO Land and Water, Black Mountain, ACT 2601, Australia.
¹³ Department of Civil Engineering, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA; NOAA-Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁴ Stockholm Environment Institute, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
¹⁵ Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
¹⁶ World Wildlife Fund, 131 Steuart Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA.
¹⁷ Center for Public Administration Research, School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
¹⁸ School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China.
¹⁹ Biology Department, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.

PMID: 29426153
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.040

Abstract

Degradation of freshwater ecosystems and the services they provide is a primary cause of increasing water insecurity, raising the need for integrated solutions to freshwater management. While methods for characterizing the multi-faceted challenges of managing freshwater ecosystems abound, they tend to emphasize either social or ecological dimensions and fall short of being truly integrative. This paper suggests that management for sustainability of freshwater systems needs to consider the linkages between human water uses, freshwater ecosystems and governance. We present a conceptualization of freshwater resources as part of an integrated social-ecological system and propose a set of corresponding indicators to monitor freshwater ecosystem health and to highlight priorities for management. We demonstrate an application of this new framework -the Freshwater Health Index (FHI) - in the Dongjiang River Basin in southern China, where stakeholders are addressing multiple and conflicting freshwater demands. By combining empirical and modeled datasets with surveys to gauge stakeholders' preferences and elicit expert information about governance mechanisms, the FHI helps stakeholders understand the status of freshwater ecosystems in their basin, how ecosystems are being manipulated to enhance or decrease water-related services, and how well the existing water resource management regime is equipped to govern these dynamics over time. This framework helps to operationalize a truly integrated approach to water resource management by recognizing the interplay between governance, stakeholders, freshwater ecosystems and the services they provide.

Keywords: Ecosystem services; Freshwater ecosystems; Freshwater sustainability; Stakeholder engagement; Water governance.