Print Email Facebook Twitter Environmental flows and water reserves Title Environmental flows and water reserves: Principles, strategies, and contributions to water and conservation policies in Mexico Author Salinas Rodriquez, Sergio (TU Delft Water Resources) Barrios-Ordóñez, Jorge E. (WWF-Mexico) Sánchez-Navarro, Rafael (WWF-Mexico) Wickel, Albertus J. (Stockholm Environment Institute US) Date 2018-01-01 Abstract Since the Brisbane Declaration in 2007, implementation of environmental flows in public policies has witnessed a steady increase around the globe. Environmental water reserves are an annual volume that is designated to remain in the ecosystem for the sustainable management of river basins. In Mexico, these reserves are determined on the basis of the Mexican Environmental Flows Norm and must be established at a river basin scale through a presidential decree for 50 years. In this manuscript, we present and discuss the implementation strategy of the norm developed for the National Water Reserves for the Environment Program, and its results in 25 reference sites based on environmental flow assessments conducted from 2012 to 2015 using hydrological and holistic methodologies. An analytical evaluation revealed an overall consistency between the Norm's environmental objectives (baseline) and the current ecological conditions on-site for the 80% of the cases (96% over high confidence rating). Furthermore, in 72% of the reference sites, the coefficient of variation among the reserve's was below the fourth quartile (<11%), whereas those remaining above that limit can be attributed to a difference in the methods' hydrologic scope. The recommended volumes for environmental allocation are feasible under the current water availability conditions in the 94% of the river basins. Although challenges have appeared in the process, to date, one reserve has been decreed on the basis of the strategic approach of setting sustainable limits of water allocation and being built an enriched flow-ecology relationships' understanding system, urgently needed to prevent ecosystems degradation and secure ecological processes. Subject environmental flowsenvironmental objectivesenvironmental water reservehydrological and holistic methodologiesMexican normriver basin To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:862d60a7-b00c-47fa-a331-668372606e31 DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3334 ISSN 1535-1459 Source River Research and Applications: an international journal devoted to river research and management, 34 (8), 1057-1084 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2018 Sergio Salinas Rodriquez, Jorge E. Barrios-Ordóñez, Rafael Sánchez-Navarro, Albertus J. Wickel Files PDF Salinas_Rodr_guez_et_al_2 ... ations.pdf 2 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:862d60a7-b00c-47fa-a331-668372606e31/datastream/OBJ/view