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The decline in global freshwater biodiversity demands urgent action. Governments are attempting to use environmental management to partly restore degraded ecosystems through targeted interventions. Designing monitoring programs to assess the success of these large-scale management programs is challenging. There is much literature addressing the technical challenges of monitoring program design, and many of these studies acknowledge limitations in current implementation. In this study, we examine the perspectives of those managers and scientists involved in designing a large-scale monitoring program and their understanding of what makes a monitoring program successful. We focus on an environmental flow monitoring program (the Flow Monitoring, Evaluation and Research program—Flow-MER—in Australia). Through semi-structured interviews and surveys, we aimed to identify what those involved consider to be “success” for monitoring projects. The outcomes highlight that—consistent with literature—clear objectives are considered pivotal to project success. However, despite this recognition, challenges in establishing clear objectives were identified as a pressing concern for the Flow-MER program. The survey results included a recurring emphasis from participants on the importance of consistent, long-term datasets. There was less clarity around how to balance monitoring design to both demonstrate management success and address key scientific uncertainties as part of adaptive management and monitoring. The findings show that while there is broadly a common understanding of success for large monitoring design, major monitoring programs such as Flow-MER continue to fall short in successful design. The approach to surveying those involved in the monitoring program, along with their articulated understanding of program shortfalls, both provide insights on how to improve design and implementation of future large-scale monitoring programs. In particular, we highlight the need for managers to establish clear objectives and invest in effective communication strategies.

Uncertainty can be an impediment to decision making and result in decision paralysis. In environmental flow management, system complexity and natural variability increase uncertainty. Climate change provides further uncertainty and can hinder decision making altogether. Environmental flow managers express reluctance to include climate change adaptation in planning due to large knowledge gaps in hydro-ecological relationships. We applied a hybrid method of hypothetical scenarios and closed ended questions within a survey to investigate ecological trade off decision making behaviours and cognitive processes of environmental flow managers. The scenarios provided were both similar to participants’ past experiences, and others were entirely unprecedented and hence unfamiliar. We found managers were more confident making decisions in situations they are familiar with, and most managers show low levels of confidence in making trade off decisions under uncertain circumstances. When given a choice, the most common response to uncertainty was to gather additional information, however information is often unavailable or inaccessible–either it does not exist, or uncertainties are so great that decisions are deferred. Given future rainfall is likely to be different from the past, environmental flow managers must work to adopt robust decision making frameworks that will increase confidence in decision making by acknowledging uncertainties. This can be done through tools developed to address decision making under deep uncertainty. Adapting these tools and methods to environmental flow management will ensure managers can begin to consider likely, necessary future trade-offs in a more informed, transparent and robust manner and increase confidence in decision making under uncertainty.

Climate variability and change pose significant threats to aquatic biodiversity, particularly in areas with low and variable streamflow. Quantifying the magnitude of risk from these threats is made more difficult by the variable responses of individual species to hydrologic stress. Patterns of population decline and recovery in response to drought cycles will depend on both the resistance traits (e.g., tolerance to harsh environmental conditions) and resilience traits (e.g., fecundity, age at maturity), both of which vary considerably among species. Collectively these traits can give rise to varied, and lagged patterns of decline and recovery in response to hydrologic variability, which ultimately can affect population viability in drought prone environments and in response to a changing climate. Such population cycles are typically modelled based on demographic rates (mortality and recruitment) under different climate conditions. However, such models are relatively data intensive, limiting their widespread development. A less precise but more tractable approach is to adopt state-and-transition approaches based on semi-quantitative population states (or population size estimates), and modelled transitions between states under different hydrologic conditions. Here we demonstrate the application of such models to a suite of diverse taxa, based on an expert elicitation of expected state-changes across those different taxa under a range of different flow conditions. The model results broadly conform with population changes observed in response to a major drought in the case-study system, mimicking the observed lags in recovery of species with different life-histories. Stochastic simulations of population cycles under scenarios of more protracted drought provide a semi-quantitative measure of the potential risk to different species under each scenario, as well as highlighting the large uncertainties that can arise when taking into account stochastic (rather than deterministic) state-transitions.

The numerous environmental flows assessment methods that exist typically assume a stationary climate. Adaptive management is commonly put forward as the preferred approach for managing uncertainty and change in environmental flows. However, we contend that a simple adaptive management loop falls short of meeting the challenges posed by climate change. Rather, a fundamental rethink is required to ensure both the structure of environmental flows assessments, along with each individual technical element, actively acknowledges the multiple dimensions of change, variability and complexity in socio-ecological systems. This paper outlines how environmental flow assessments can explicitly address the uncertainty and change inherent in adaptively managing multiple values for management of environmental flows. While non-stationarity and uncertainty are well recognised in the climate literature, these have not been addressed within the structure of environmental flows methodologies. Here, we present an environmental flow assessment that is structured to explicitly consider future change and uncertainty in climate and socio-ecological values, by examining scenarios using ecological models. The environmental flow assessment methodology further supports adaptive management through the intentional integration of participatory approaches and the inclusion of diverse stakeholders. We present a case study to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, highlighting how this methodology facilitates adaptive management. Rethinking our approach to environmental flows assessments is an important step in ensuring that environmental flows continue to work effectively as a management tool under climate change.

Climate change is irreversibly changing the water cycle, yet existing environmental flow assessment methods often fail to recognize the non-stationarity of hydro-climatic systems. Failure to do so will lead to the inability of environmental water management to achieve its ecological targets. Australia has undergone major reform over the past 12 years to recover water from consumptive use for environmental benefit and this paper examines how government agencies responsible for planning and delivery of environmental water establish ecological objectives, and whether there are any barriers to including climate adaptations. We used semi-structured interviews and an online survey of environmental water staff throughout Australia, focusing on southeast Australia, to gather information on methods and perceptions regarding these key issues. The results show water managers perceive current ecological objectives as unachievable and are frustrated by using outdated, government-recommended flow assessment methods. There are many general and industry-specific barriers to climate adaptation that are not insurmountable, yet the current lack of legislative and policy guidance provides little assistance on the best way to respond. We conclude that environmental water planning needs to more formally incorporate climate change considerations along with modelling approaches that can evaluate outcomes under a range of possible future hydro-climatic scenarios to ensure proactive decision making can occur. As the industry currently exists in Australia, it is ill prepared for the challenge of meeting legislated ecological targets under future climates.

Implementing environmental flows has emerged as a major river management tool for addressing the impacts of hydrologic alteration in large river systems. The “natural flow paradigm” has been a central guiding principle for determining important ecohydrological relationships. Yet, climate change and associated changes in rainfall run off relationships, seasonality of flows, disruptions to food webs and species life cycle cues mean these existing relationships will, in many circumstances, become obsolete. Revised thinking around setting ecological objectives is required to ensure environmental management targets are achievable, particularly in regions where water scarcity is predicted to increase. Through this lens “climate ready” targets are those that are robust to changing water availability or incorporate future adaptation options. Future objective setting should be based around the inclusion of changing climate and water availability, and the associated species and ecosystem vulnerabilities, and expected outcomes under different policy and adaptation options. This paper uses south eastern Australia as a case study region to review the extent to which current water management plans include climate considerations and adaptation in objective setting. Results show untested climate adaptation inclusions, and a general lack of acknowledgement of changing hydrological and ecological conditions in existing management plans. In response this paper presents a process for setting objectives so they can be considered “climate ready.”

Rivers are dynamic social-ecological systems that support societies and ecosystems in a multitude of ways, giving rise to a variety of user groups and competing interests. Environmental flows (e-flows) programs developed to protect riverine environments are often conceived by water managers and researchers. This is despite continued calls for increased public participation to include local communities and Indigenous peoples in the development process. Failure to do so undermines social legitimacy and program effectiveness. In this paper, we describe how adaptive management of e-flows allows an opportunity to incorporate a diversity of stakeholder views through an iterative process. However, to achieve this, stakeholder engagement must be intentionally integrated into the adaptive management cycle. Stakeholder engagement in e-flows allows for the creation of a shared understanding of a river and opens collaborative and innovative management strategies that address multiple axes of uncertainty. Here, we describe a holistic framework that unifies current participatory engagement attempts and existing technical methods into a complete strategy. The framework identifies the primary steps in an e-flows adaptive management cycle, describes potential roles of various stakeholders, and proposes potential engagement tools. Restructuring e-flows methods to adequately include stakeholders requires a shift from being driven by deliverables, such as reports and flow recommendations, to focusing on people-oriented outcomes, such as continuous learning and fostering relationships. While our work has been placed in the context of e-flows, the intentional integration of stakeholder engagement in adaptive management is pertinent to natural resources management generally.

A decade ago, scientists and practitioners working in environmental water management crystallized the progress and direction of environmental flows science, practice, and policy in The Brisbane Declaration and Global Action Agenda (2007), during the 10th International Riversymposium and International Environmental Flows Conference held in Brisbane, Australia. The 2007 Declaration highlights the significance of environmental water allocations for humans and freshwater-dependent ecosystems, and sets out a nine-point global action agenda. This was the first consensus document that bought together the diverse experiences across regions and disciplines, and was significant in setting a common vision and direction for environmental flows internationally. After a decade of uptake and innovation in environmental flows, the 2007 declaration and action agenda was revisited at the 20th International Riversymposium and Environmental Flows Conference, held in Brisbane, Australia, in 2017. The objective was to publicize achievements since 2007 and update the declaration and action agenda to reflect collective progress, innovation, and emerging challenges for environmental flows policy, practice and science worldwide. This paper on The Brisbane Declaration and Global Action Agenda on Environmental Flows (2018) describes the inclusive consultation processes that guided the review of the 2007 document. The 2018 Declaration presents an urgent call for action to protect and restore environmental flows and aquatic ecosystems for their biodiversity, intrinsic values, and ecosystem services, as a central element of integrated water resources management, and as a foundation for achievement of water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Global Action Agenda (2018) makes 35 actionable recommendations to guide and support implementation of environmental flows through legislation and regulation, water management programs, and research, linked by partnership arrangements involving diverse stakeholders. An important new element of the Declaration and Action Agenda is the emphasis given to full and equal participation for people of all cultures, and respect for their rights, responsibilities and systems of governance in environmental water decisions. These social and cultural dimensions of e-flow management warrant far more attention. Actionable recommendations present a pathway forward for a new era of scientific research and innovation, shared visions, collaborative implementation programs, and adaptive governance of environmental flows, suited to new social, and environmental contexts driven by planetary pressures, such as human population growth and climate change.

Gérard Reach,1,2 Silla M Consoli,3,4 Serge Halimi,5 Claude Colas,6 Martine Duclos,7–9 Pierre Fontaine,10 Caroline Martineau,11 Carole Avril,12 Catherine Tourette-Turgis,13 Sylvie Pucheu,4 Olivier Brunet14 1Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Avicenne Hospital, Bobigny, 2EA 3412, CRNH-IDF, Paris 13 University, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Bobigny, 3Paris Descartes University, Paris Sorbonne Cité, Faculty of Medicine, Paris, 4University Service of Adult and Elderly Psychiatry, European Georges-Pompidou Hospital, Paris, 5Department of Diabetology, Endocrinology and Nutrition, Joseph Fourier University and CHU Grenoble, Grenoble, 6Department of Diabetology, Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, Paris, 7Department of Sport Medicine and Functional Explorations, Montpied Hospital, Clermont-Ferrand, 8Department of Human Nutrition, Centre de Recherche en Nutrition Humaine, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Clermont-Ferrand, 9Department of Human Nutrition, University of Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, 10Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Huriez Hospital, Lille 2 University, Lille, 11Department of Dietetics, Larrey Hospital, CHU Toulouse, 12French Diabetics Federation, Paris, 13UPMC-Sorbonne Universités, Paris, 14General practitioner, Seraincourt, France Aim: The second Diabetes, Attitudes, Wishes and Needs (DAWN2™) multinational cross-sectional study was aimed at generating insights to facilitate innovative efforts by people with diabetes (PWD), family members (FMs), and health care professionals (HCPs) to improve self-management and psychosocial support in diabetes. Here, the French data from the DAWN2™ study are described.Methods: In France, 500 PWD (80 with type 1 diabetes [T1] and 420 with type 2 diabetes [T2]), 120 FMs, and 288 HCPs were recruited. The questionnaires assessed the impact of diabetes on quality of life and mood, self-management, attitudes/beliefs, and care/support.Results: Diabetes negatively impacted the emotional well-being of 59% of people with T1 versus 45% of people with T2 (P

Significant progress in environmental flow management has occurred in recent years due to several factors. These include governments committing to environmental flow programs, significant progress in scientific understanding, and environmental flow assessment methods that are cognizant of stakeholder participation and co-design. However, there remain key challenges facing environmental water management. In this paper, we report on a horizon scanning exercise that identified the questions, which, if answered, would deliver much needed progress in the field of environmental water management. We distributed an online survey to ask researchers and practitioners in the field of environmental water management to identify the key questions. The authors then consolidated 268 submitted questions and organized them into key themes. The consolidated list was presented to a workshop of environmental water researchers and practitioners, where attendees were asked to review the questions, vote on the most important, and provide feedback on gaps, issues, or overlaps. The breadth of issues facing environmental water management is captured by the six key themes into which questions were classified: (1) Ecological knowledge and environmental flow assessment methods, (2) Adaptive management, (3) Integrated management and river objectives, (4) Knowledge transfer: applying best practice in a global context, (5) Community knowledge and engagement, and (6) Active management. These questions provide a roadmap for research and management innovations that will improve the effectiveness of environmental flows programs.

The decline in global freshwater biodiversity demands urgent action. Governments are attempting to use environmental management to partly restore degraded ecosystems through targeted interventions. Designing monitoring programs to assess the success of these large-scale management programs is challenging. There is much literature addressing the technical challenges of monitoring program design, and many of these studies acknowledge limitations in current implementation. In this study, we examine the perspectives of those managers and scientists involved in designing a large-scale monitoring program and their understanding of what makes a monitoring program successful. We focus on an environmental flow monitoring program (the Flow Monitoring, Evaluation and Research program—Flow-MER—in Australia). Through semi-structured interviews and surveys, we aimed to identify what those involved consider to be "success" for monitoring projects. The outcomes highlight that—consistent with literature—clear objectives are considered pivotal to project success. However, despite this recognition, challenges in establishing clear objectives were identified as a pressing concern for the Flow-MER program. The survey results included a recurring emphasis from participants on the importance of consistent, long-term datasets. There was less clarity around how to balance monitoring design to both demonstrate management success and address key scientific uncertainties as part of adaptive management and monitoring. The findings show that while there is broadly a common understanding of success for large monitoring design, major monitoring programs such as Flow-MER continue to fall short in successful design. The approach to surveying those involved in the monitoring program, along with their articulated understanding of program shortfalls, both provide insights on how to improve design and implementation of future large-scale monitoring programs. In particular, we highlight the need for managers to establish clear objectives and invest in effective communication strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental flows (e-flows) aim to mitigate the threat of altered hydrological regimes in river systems and connected waterbodies and are an important component of integrated strategies to address multiple threats to freshwater biodiversity. Expanding and accelerating implementation of e-flows can support river conservation and help to restore the biodiversity and resilience of hydrologically altered and water-stressed rivers and connected freshwater ecosystems. While there have been significant developments in e-flow science, assessment, and societal acceptance, implementation of e-flows within water resource management has been slower than required and geographically uneven. This review explores critical factors that enable successful e-flow implementation and biodiversity outcomes in particular, drawing on 13 case studies and the literature. It presents e-flow implementation as an adaptive management cycle enabled by 10 factors: legislation and governance, financial and human resourcing, stakeholder engagement and co-production of knowledge, collaborative monitoring of ecological and social-economic outcomes, capacity training and research, exploration of trade-offs among water users, removing or retrofitting water infrastructure to facilitate e-flows and connectivity, and adaptation to climate change. Recognising that there may be barriers and limitations to the full and effective enablement of each factor, the authors have identified corresponding options and generalizable recommendations for actions to overcome prominent constraints, drawing on the case studies and wider literature. The urgency of addressing flow-related freshwater biodiversity loss demands collaborative networks to train and empower a new generation of e-flow practitioners equipped with the latest tools and insights to lead adaptive environmental water management globally. Mainstreaming e-flows within conservation planning, integrated water resource management, river restoration strategies, and adaptations to climate change is imperative. The policy drivers and associated funding commitments of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework offer crucial opportunities to achieve the human benefits contributed by e-flows as nature-based solutions, such as flood risk management, floodplain fisheries restoration, and increased river resilience to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective environmental watering programmes improve the ecological conditions of river systems. This involves identifying and managing any significant risks that may hinder programme success. We undertook a qualitative study exploring how environmental water managers perceive and manage these risks while planning and delivering environmental water, using the Goulburn River, south-east Australia, as a case study. We developed a risk table detailing the progression of key risk events and how environmental water managers manage these. The findings highlight that many risk management strategies are tied to different organizations and water users, making it challenging to successfully deliver environmental water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Allocation of water specifically to the environment (often dubbed 'environmental water' or 'environmental flows') can be contentious within government, among irrigators and between community members. The reduction in supply of fresh water has led to questions surrounding the efficiencies and ecological value of securing these adequate flows for waterways. This literature review examines the evidence on these perceptions of environmental water allocations, focusing foremost on general public, irrigator, Indigenous and decision-maker perspectives. Existing studies are predominantly in Global North areas such as Australia, Canada and the USA. Two themes featured strongly in the papers: the importance of personal values in the acceptance of environmental water and the perception of fairness in environmental water allocation processes. Although the research area has been expanding, there is still limited representation in types of study, disciplinary backgrounds and study locations, and as such many research opportunities remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]