Ecohydrology for Ethiopia — regulation of water biota interactions for sustainable water resources and ecosystem services for societies

Zalewski, Maciej; Negussie, Yohannes Zerihun; Urbaniak, M.

doi:10.2478/v10104-011-0028-1

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Previous studies confirmed that there are advancements globally in the maintenance of flows in rivers that make water resource uses sustainable [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Developing countries like Ethiopia are increasingly emphasizing environmental flows and the allocation of water for ecological conservation [8,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Hydrological Foundation as a Basis for a Holistic Environmental Flow Assessment of Tropical Highland Rivers in Ethiopia

Abebe

Tilahun

Moges

et al. 2020

Water

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The sustainable development of water resources includes retaining some amount of the natural flow regime in water bodies to protect and maintain aquatic ecosystem health and the human livelihoods and wellbeing dependent upon them. Although assessment of environmental flows is now occurring globally, limited studies have been carried out in the Ethiopian highlands, especially studies to understand flow-ecological response relationships. This paper establishes a hydrological foundation of Gumara River from an ecological perspective. The data analysis followed three steps: first, determination of the current flow regime—flow indices and ecologically relevant flow regime; second, naturalization of the current flow regime—looking at how flow regime is changing; and, finally, an initial exploration of flow linkages with ecological processes. Flow data of Gumara River from 1973 to 2018 are used for the analysis. Monthly low flow occurred from December to June; the lowest being in March, with a median flow of 4.0 m3 s−1. Monthly high flow occurred from July to November; the highest being in August, with a median flow of 236 m3 s−1. 1-Day low flows decreased from 1.55 m3 s−1 in 1973 to 0.16 m3 s−1 in 2018, and 90-Day (seasonal) low flow decreased from 4.9 m3 s−1 in 1973 to 2.04 m3 s−1 in 2018. The Mann–Kendall trend test indicated that the decrease in low flow was significant for both durations at α = 0.05. A similar trend is indicated for both durations of high flow. The decrease in both low flows and high flows is attributed to the expansion of pump irrigation by 29 km2 and expansion of plantations, which resulted in an increase of NDVI from 0.25 in 2000 to 0.29 in 2019. In addition, an analysis of environmental flow components revealed that only four “large floods” appeared in the last 46 years; no “large flood” occurred after 1988. Lacking “large floods” which inundate floodplain wetlands has resulted in early disconnection of floodplain wetlands from the river and the lake; which has impacts on breeding and nursery habitat shrinkage for migratory fish species in Lake Tana. On the other hand, the extreme decrease in “low flow” components has impacts on predators, reducing their mobility and ability to access prey concentrated in smaller pools. These results serve as the hydrological foundation for continued studies in the Gumara catchment, with the eventual goal of quantifying environmental flow requirements.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Hydrological Foundation as a Basis for a Holistic Environmental Flow Assessment of Tropical Highland Rivers in Ethiopia

Abebe

Tilahun

Moges

et al. 2020

Water

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“…Like the triangulation of critical and transcendental realism, the use of Anthony Giddens' structurations theory offers prospects of multi‐disciplinary research as touted by IHOPE (Costanza et al, ; Williams et al, ) and UNESCO's IHP and MAB projects (Zalewski et al, ; Zalewski, , ). Biota and water can be considered as the material resources, while social structures as immaterial resources being governed by the actors, the human beings.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As proposed in the IHOPE project, that there should be a complex hypotheses towards Man and his environment (Williams et al, ), Zalewski et al () and IHP () also propose 11 working Hypotheses of Ecohydrology that involve the analyses of historical changes to further the understanding that hydrological and ecological processes can be changed by human impact. Additionally, remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems techniques need to be used to explain ecological changes.…”

Section: Ecohydrology: the Challenges Of Bridging The Natural And Thementioning

confidence: 99%

On philosophical foundations of ecohydrology: the challenge of bridging natural and social science

Owusu

2015

Ecohydrology

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The introduction of a sustainable management of freshwater resources to biological and hydrological processes of ecohydrology research by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's International Hydrologic Programme and the Man and Biosphere Programme calls for multiple and overarching philosophical explanations in ecohydrology. This paper reviews philosophical theories underpinning research in natural sciences (hydrology and biology) and social sciences, with special emphasis on studying causes and effects of ecohydrological extremes such as water stress and drought. The ontology, epistemology and methodology of theories such as Empiricism, Realism and Structurations have been considered. Specifically, the application of the hypothetico‐deductive method of Empiricism was first reviewed in guiding empirical modelling of a river basin. Then, the Retroduction method of transcendental realism was also reviewed for the guidance of distributed models. Critical realism was reviewed as a philosophy of local knowledge identification of causes and effects of ecohydrological extremes. Finally, an ambitious attempt was made in proposing Anthony Giddens' concepts of resources and human agency to bridge the gap between the natural and the social science philosophies. This suggests that there can be a common grand theory for both the natural and the social sciences, and the latter can be used to validate the theoretical foundations of the former and vice versa. The study will be useful for post graduates students, especially PhD candidates, who are normally required to review and justify the philosophical foundations of their studies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…The essence of the ecohydrological perspective is rooted in the defining classification by Odum (cited in Zalewski et al 2010:102) that "ecology is the economy of nature" [22]. Thus the implementation of this strategy posits that the enhancement of the carrying capacity of urban ecosystems has to begin by quantifying the hydrological cycle (such as trends in the eutrophication of rivers through waste dumping) and the identification of threats to ecosystems and public health engendered by such waste disposal practices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a new trend of thinking towards promoting livable urban settings, the theory and implementation of ecohydrology has been developed in the framework of the International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO (Zalewski et al1997[17]; Zalewski and McCain 1998[18]). Zalewski et al (2010: 102) have suggested that "an integrative approach, expressed by ecohydrology principles, should be helpful to distillate the general patterns of ecohydrological interplays, which confronted with social challenges [largely due to the rapid urban population growth rates and underlying transformations] should provide a dynamic framework for the formulation and implementation of realistic strategies for problem solving by focusing on ecological processes for enhancing sustainability [19][own emphasis]. But why is the ecohydrological perspective particularly useful for mitigating the negative effects of the current poor waste management on the environmental public health status of residents through the enhancement of ecosystem services to society?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Waste Management Threats to Human Health and Urban Aquatic Habitats – A Case Study of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Mazhindu¹,

Gumbo²,

Gondo³

2012

Waste Management - An Integrated Vision

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Ecohydrology for Ethiopia — regulation of water biota interactions for sustainable water resources and ecosystem services for societies

Cited by 8 publications

References 15 publications

Hydrological Foundation as a Basis for a Holistic Environmental Flow Assessment of Tropical Highland Rivers in Ethiopia

Hydrological Foundation as a Basis for a Holistic Environmental Flow Assessment of Tropical Highland Rivers in Ethiopia

On philosophical foundations of ecohydrology: the challenge of bridging natural and social science

Waste Management Threats to Human Health and Urban Aquatic Habitats – A Case Study of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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