Water Allocation in the Southeast: Stakeholder Governance and Decision Making

The natural patterns of seasonal flows in Southeast rivers are drivers for many ecosystem functions and processes on which natural and human economies rely. Alteration of natural flows by increased human demands for water and global climate change are identified as priority threats to the health of southern rivers. Southeast water resources are ‘plentiful’ versus other regions, yet water allocation issues almost always involve multiple-competing users with different values; during times of drought, conflicts are enhanced. Science-based frameworks that incorporate the values of decision makers and stakeholders are available to assist with decision framing; however, processes for incorporating flow-socioecological relations into allocation decisions are lacking. Water resource managers and governance entities require science-based tools and information to support the development, testing and prediction of consequences of sound instream flow policies and practices, especially in the face of uncertain water supply. We describe the application of structured decision making methods to instream flow scenario development and implementation on multiple spatial scales, with specific attention to structural uncertainty. This approach will build the capacity of decision-makers in the region to apply data to a policy context by providing a scientific framework for assessing trade-offs among social values, management needs, and environmental outcomes.