A Framework for the Quantification of the Importance of Environmental Flows for Human Well-Being

The natural variation in river flows contributes to the sustenance of river ecosystems and associated goods and services, on which particularly poor communities may depend for their well-being. River regulation may cause ecosystem degradation and can result in a reduced availability of ecosystem goods and services. Environmental flow assessment methods have been developed to assess the required volume and dynamics of river flows needed to sustain river ecosystems at a certain level. In these methods, there is currently no integrated structured approach to quantify how people are impacted by alterations in the ecosystem. This article proposes a framework for the quantification of the relationships between river-flow-dependent ecosystem services and human well-being. The framework is illustrated with results from the application of the framework in two case studies in Asia.