Environmental Flows, Ecological Quality and Ecosystem Services

Establishing proper environmental flows (e-flows) across river basins is one of the keystones to implementing an integrated management of water resources. This is even more critical in water-scarce river basins due to increasing water uses (i.e., irrigation) and climate change. Functions and values of aquatic ecosystems (i.e., water quality, sediment dynamics, productivity, biodiversity, ecosystem services, etc.) are influenced by river flow regime alterations. However, scientists and managers often find it very difficult to quantitatively link the ecological status of aquatic ecosystems and their services to specific e-flow regimes. This Special Issue welcomes papers investigating the links among river flows, the status of aquatic ecosystems and the benefits they provide to our society, either from scientific or management perspectives.