Competing Freshwater and Ecological Services in the River Basin Perspective

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Abstract
A river basin approach focusing on upstream/downstream conflicts of interest has to involve attention both to the services that water itself provides to society, and to water-related ecosystem services, terrestrial as well as aquatic. Besides “blue water” flow, i.e., liquid water flows in rivers and aquifers, attention has to be paid to “green water” flow, i.e., the water vapor flow involved in plant production. Basically, the rainfall over the basin is what must be shared between those upstream and those downstream. To satisfy societal needs, humans have to manipulate various landscape elements. These manipulations—due to fundamental water functions—will produce side effects (“environmental impacts”). In an integrated basin approach, it is necessary to include side effects of water-impacting land use conversions upstream on water-dependent activities and ecosystem health downstream. A fundamental challenge is therefore to find ways and mechanisms by which reconciliation can be developed among land use, water use, and ecosystem health, and between upstream and downstream activities