Environmental Flows: Saving Rivers in the Third Millennium (Freshwater Ecology Series)

Water is essential. Water is a compound central to all life and an integral part of all ecosystems. This book is about the flow of water and attempts to answer crucial questions about the flow of water. How much water is needed to sustain particular ecosystems? How does water move within and between different kinds of ecosystems? What happens when the flow of water or the availability of water is limited, modified, curtailed or diverted, either naturally or by human activity? How will climate change alter the abundance and availability of water? “Environmental Flows” addresses these and related questions by describing how the flow of water is assessed, how the need for water is evaluated and how water is managed at multiple spatial scales. The book is a must read for water managers and freshwater and estuarine ecologists contending with ever changing conditions influencing the flow of water.