Friday, 25 June 2021

By: Mohammad Haroon Hairan, Nor Rohaizah Jamil

Article prepared by: Farah Izana Abdullah

One of the biggest environmental challenges of the 21st century is having enough water for human use without compromising the related ecosystems. The increasing demand for water is causing substantial flow alterations in rivers. Flow alteration is directly linked to impacts on the physical and chemical properties, and consequent ecological changes of the rivers. Therefore, the conducting of environmental flow assessment is necessary to understand current status of some important river basins in Southeast Asia (SEA) in terms of environmental flow assessment and river sustainability.

The status of environmental flow is ranked unsatisfactory in most river basins of SEA countries. This is due to very limited efforts have been made for environmental flow even though Southeast Asia have a tremendous rainy season with abundant water resources. Moreover, this region is facing rapid population growth, urban sprawl, urbanization and climatic disasters have led to unsustainable use of natural resources and degrading of streamflow in terms of quantity and quality. Without an appropriate national and regional mechanism, significant changes will appear and the fisheries community will decrease. Therefore, environmental flow need to be adopted in policies and water management practices to overcome with the rising crisis of unsustainable river management. This is important for conservation, restoration and sustainability of ecosystems in dammed rivers.

Web: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126411

Date of Input: 29/06/2021 | Updated: 29/06/2021 | m_fakhrulddin