Balancing environmental flows with consumptive uses in a water scarce environment: Ecohydrology tools from California

November 17, 2025 in Seminar

Eric Stein, Ph.D., Biology Department Head, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project

Join us for the livestream November 19th, 11:45am ET: https://youtube.com/live/QjXKq6Xd5VA?feature=share

(Please visit our YouTube channel main page for the stream if there are any issues with the direct link.)

ABSTRACT

Implementation of comprehensive environmental flow programs for freshwater ecosystems has never been more urgent. Globally, human population growth and activities are placing increasing pressure on freshwater resources, leading to competition for ever scarcer water and overallocation. Coupled with climate change and increased incidences of drought and flooding, these shifting patterns of water use, and allocation have severely impacted flow magnitudes, durations, and timing in rivers around the and caused widespread degradation of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem conditions. Integrated assessment tools can help develop flow allocation programs that aim to balance ecological and human resource needs. The California Environmental Flows Framework (CEFF) is a collaboratively developed approach to establish environmental flow recommendations at regional scales. CEFF uses a functional flows approach, which focuses on protecting a broad suite of ecological, geomorphic, and biogeochemical functions instead of specific species or habitats, and can be applied consistently across diverse stream types and spatial scales. CEFF includes a process for considering non-ecological flow needs to produce a final set of environmental flow recommendations that aim to balance water needs of all desired uses. CEFF was developed via a broad inclusive process that included technical experts across multiple disciplines, representatives from federal and state agencies, and stakeholders and potential end-users from across the state. The resulting framework is therefore not associated with any single agency or regulatory program but can be applied under different contexts, mandates and end-user priorities. Although developed for California the approach can be readily transferred to other regions to inform development of environmental flow programs.

BIO
Eric Stein, Ph.D., is the head of the Biology Department at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP). Stein oversees a variety of projects related to in-stream and coastal water quality, ecohydrology, bioassessment, hydromodification, watershed modeling, and assessment of wetlands and other aquatic resources. His research focuses on effects of human activities on the condition of aquatic ecosystems, and on developing tools to better assess and manage those effects. Stein has authored over 150 journal articles, 80 technical reports, three book chapters and participates on numerous technical workgroups and committees at the federal and state levels related to water quality and wetland assessment and management. Prior to joining SCCWRP in 2002, he spent six years as a Senior Project Manager with the Regulatory Branch of the Los Angeles District Corps of Engineers, and four years with a private consulting firm.
 
POSTCARD