ConserveOnline - ELOHA Toolbox

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Welcome to the ELOHA Toolbox, an information resource to foster learning and communication about environmental flow determination and management over large regions.

Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration (ELOHA) is a scientifically robust and flexible framework for assessing and managing environmental flows* across large regions, when lack of time and resources preclude evaluating individual rivers. ELOHA systematically translates understanding of the ecological ramifications of human-induced streamflow alterations from rivers that have been studied to rivers that have not, without requiring detailed site-specific information for each river. In numerous case studies worldwide, water managers, policy makers, stakeholders, and scientists with diverse expertise are using ELOHA to accelerate the integration of environmental flows into regional water resource planning and management.

ELOHA consists of the following steps, as illustrated in the framework flow chart (in English and Spanish):

Building a hydrologic foundation of daily streamflow hydrographs representing at least two conditions – baseline (pre-development) and present-day – for a single time period for every analysis point within the region
Classifying river types according to hydrologic and other characteristics
Assessing flow alteration from baseline conditions at every analysis point
Determining flow-ecology relationships that quantify biological responses to different degrees of hydrologic alteration for each river type, based on existing biological and related data and models.
Implementing policies to maintain and restore environmental flows through a social process involving stakeholders and water managers informed by the flow-ecology relationships.

The scientific basis for ELOHA was published in 2006 by an international group of river scientists (Arthington et al 2006). Practical guidelines for its application have been developed by consensus of leading international environmental flow experts (Poff et al 2010).

Among the resources found on the ELOHA toolbox are:

4-page ELOHA brochure in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese
PowerPoint (13.5 MB) with notes explaining ELOHA step-by-step, illustrated with examples from around the world
List of multidisciplinary expertise needed to carry out ELOHA (or any comprehensive environmental flow* assessment).
Case studies illustrating the various steps of ELOHA
ELOHA project database of cooperating agencies, costs, funding sources, timelines, and other attributes of selected ELOHA applications that are underway
Sample proposals from ELOHA projects that have been funded
Bibliography of useful reports and articles

ELOHA Framework

Building a Hydrologic Foundation

Classifying River Types

Assessing Flow Alteration

Determining Flow-Ecology Relationships

Implementing Policy with
policy language examples
from around the world

Resources

Get Started

Report: PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWS FOR POLICY AND PLANNING

Brochure in:
   English
   Spanish
   Vietnamese

Flow Chart in:
English
Spanish

Learn More

Related Information

Global Environmental Flows Network

Instream Flow Council

Southern Instream Flow Network

Ecosystem services of freshwater systems by flow component

Brisbane Declaration in:
English
Spanish

* Environmental flows are the amount and timing of water flows required to maintain the species, functions, and resilience of freshwater ecosystems and the livelihoods of human communities that depend on those healthy ecosystems.

Photo credits (left to right): Photo © Harold E. Malde (vernal pools at Table Mountain); Photo © Cheryl Rose (cormorant in wetlands habitat).