No part of the world will be untouched by the earth's warming, and this is especially true for freshwater resources.

The major threat to freshwater ecosystems now and in a warmer climate is human-induced changes in water flows, caused by the heavy demands we have placed on them. These altered flows affect every aspect of a river or lake's health by impacting water temperature and the timing, quantity and quality of water flows.

Environmental flow management can help to mitigate the consequences of climate change as part of an adaptation strategy. Building from this focus, The Nature Conservancy is working with governments and partners to:

• Design water-supply systems that can accommodate changes in river flow patterns including increased floods, droughts and rising temperatures.
• Adopt comprehensive, basin-wide approaches to water management that include maintaining adequate environmental flows to preserve flexibility and build resilience.
• Manage existing water infrastructure sustainably by providing appropriate environmental flow releases.
• Restore floodplains and wetlands that can provide flood storage, water filtration and recharge aquifers used for drinking water supplies.
• Remove unnecessary barriers that block fish and other species from migrating to cooler waters as temperatures rise.
• Invest in applied research on the impacts of climate change and link adaptation strategies to this research.

Tools and Resources

Technologies including the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) software, flow restoration database and the Regime Prescription Tool (RPT) to aide freshwater practitioners can be found by clicking here.

Journal Articles about Freshwater Conservation

Suggested articles for Climate Change Practitioners:

Brown, C. and King, J. 2006. Environmental flows: Striking the balance between development and resource protection. Ecology and Society 11(2): 26. [online} URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/
(Reprinted here with permission from the author.)

Arthington, A.H., Bunn, S.E., Poff, N.L., and R.J. Naiman. 2006. The Challanege of Providing Environmental Flow Rules to Sustain River Ecosysytems. Ecological Applications 16(4):1311-1318. 

Richter, B.D., Warner, Andrew T., Meyer, Judy L., and Lutz, Kim. 2006. A Collaborative and Adaptive Process for Developing Environmental Flow Recommendations.  (.pdf, 558 kb)

Richter, Brian and Postel, 2004, Can we save earth's rivers? Issues in Science and Technology 20/3: 31-36