Online course Environmental Flows

This online course introduces the concept of environmental flows, explains why they are necessary, how to assess and implement them and what they can achieve and what they cannot.
An often under-valued aspect of water resources management is maintaining the ecological goods and services which rivers provide for people, including income, food, health and recreation. The term ‘Environmental Flows’ is used to refer to a modified flow regime to maintain a river in some agreed ecological condition. However, maintaining the full spectrum of naturally occurring flows in a river is nowadays hardly possible due to economic developments which have modified the natural flow regime. Environmental Flows can therefore be seen as finding a balance between river basin development on one hand and maintenance of river ecology on the other.
The topic of environmental flows requires input from a wide variety of disciplines: Hydrology, Hydraulics, Water chemistry and Geomorphology provide the baseline physical processes which govern environmental conditions in freshwater ecosystems as well as the coastal zone. Governance, policy, economics and social conditions provide the framework for managing natural resources.