PARENT SESSION
OOS 3: Valuation of Ecological Resources: Integration of Ecology and Socio-economics to Inform Environmental Decisions.
Organized by: LA Kapustka, RG Stahl, WR Munns, and RJF Bruins
Monday, August 2, 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, Meeting Room E 145.

Water budget analysis as a tool for balancing economic and ecological values in water management.

FitzHugh, Thomas^*,1, ¹ The Nature Conservancy, Olympia, WA, 98501

ABSTRACT- Water management activities can influence a range of different values. In some cases, such as water supply, irrigation, flood control, hydroelectric power, and fisheries, these values are relatively easy to measure economically. In other cases, such as the right of all people to a clean supply of water, the preservation of endemic endangered species, and long-term ecological integrity, economic valuation is much harder to apply. Because the 20th century approach to water resources development has had serious impacts on the health of freshwater ecosystems, it will be very important to develop tools and methods for balancing these different values in future management decisions. A potentially powerful tool in making these decisions is a water budget analysis of the spatial and temporal distribution of human uses of water and environmental flows, and the impacts of different arrangements of flows on economic benefits of water use and on freshwater and estuarine integrity. While there is still uncertainty in the science of specifying environmental flow requirements of rivers and estuaries, that science is sufficiently advanced whereby it is possible to examine these trade-offs in a manner that is informative for management decisions. Such analysis is envisioned not as black-box decision-making tool, but as way to create scenarios that can be modified and evaluated in a stakeholder-driven process of decision-making. This presentation will review the rationale for engaging in this sort of water budget analysis, examine and critique some existing approaches and studies, and present the Nature Conservancy?s plans for implementing such analysis in specific projects.

Key words: Water management