Abstract:

The assessment of the effects of water management decisions on socioeconomic activities and the environment is essential for sustainable water resources planning. In regulated basins, environmental flows are key to preserve the ecological status and river biodiversity. However, in river basins with water scarcity, environmental flows can negatively affect the reliability of supply to water demands. Therefore, the definition of environmental flow regimes in the Hydrological Plans is of paramount importance since it directly affects the socioeconomic activities and the river ecosystems of the basin (Pardo-Loaiza et al., 2022; Ghannem et al., 2023).

In this context, workshops and practical activities were included in the subject Water Resources Systems of the Master`s programme in Hydraulic Engineering and Environment at the Polytechnic University of Valencia to learn students how to address the implications of environmental flows on hydrological alteration and reliability of water demands. This subject, which is given to a group of about 60 students from September to February of each academic year, comprises concepts related to analysis and planning of water resources systems, such as water resources assessment, water resources allocation and management, optimization of water resources management, environmental flows, drought management, etc.

In the practical lessons focused on environmental flows, each student worked with real data of different water resources systems in Spain, so that they were able to solve real issues related to hydrological planning. The practice includes data collection of natural runoff series, assessment of minimum environmental flows with different methods, proposal of several environmental flow regimes, assessment and comparison of their effects on hydrological alteration and reliability of water supply to demands, and selection of the most suitable environmental flow regime for each study area.

The experiences of these practices so far indicate that students feel motivated to face real problems of water resources planning and management. They not only improve their practical skills, but also delve into the theoretical knowledge of the subject to be able to carry out their practices properly. Thus, students have gone from surface learning to deep learning of concepts related to the subject, and the quality of the practical works has improved accordingly.

Acknowledgements:
This work was partly funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 through research contract IJC2019-038848-I (Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación program).

References:
[1] Ghannem, S., Bergillos, R.J., Paredes-Arquiola, J., Martínez-Capel, F., & Andreu, J. (2023). Coupling hydrological, habitat and water supply indicators to improve the management of environmental flows. Science of The Total Environment, 898, 165640.
[2] Pardo-Loaiza, J., Bergillos, R. J., Solera, A., Paredes-Arquiola, J., & Andreu, J. (2022). Habitat alteration assessment for the management of environmental flows in regulated basins. Journal of Environmental Management, 319, 115653.

Keywords:

Hydrological planning, environmental flows, practical lessons, post-graduate education.