Applying and Assessing Participatory Approaches in an Environmental Flows Case Study.

Environmental flows (e-flows) management takes place within a complex social-ecological system, necessitating the involvement of diverse stakeholders and an appreciation of a range of perspectives and knowledge types. It is widely accepted that incorporating participatory methods into environmental flows decision-making will allow stakeholders to become meaningfully involved, improving potential solutions, and fostering social legitimacy. However, due to substantial structural barriers, implementing participatory approaches can be difficult for water managers. This paper assesses the effectiveness of an e-flows methodology that combines elements of structured decision-making and participatory modeling, whilst constrained by project resources. Three process-based objectives were identified by the group at the start of the process: improving transparency, knowledge exchange, and community ownership. We evaluated the success of the approach according to those objectives using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. In evaluating how well the participatory approach achieved the process objectives, we found that at least 80% of respondents expressed positive sentiment in every category (n = 15). We demonstrate that the values-based process objectives defined by the participant group are an effective tool for evaluating participatory success. This paper highlights that participatory approaches can be effective even in resource-constrained environments when the process is adapted to fit the decision-making context.

Assessment of stream ecosystem function and sensitivity in the Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming.

This paper presents a hierarchical analysis of stream ecosystem distribution and sensitivity to natural and anthropogenic disturbances for the Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming. We designated stream gradient, flow regime, and lithology as environmental parameters that would result in the most robust, readily applied, and parsimonious description of physical and chemical characteristics of individual stream segments. We used these parameters to map the spatial distribution and relative abundance of stream habitats in the study area. We then used the proportion of each sixth-level hydrologic unit boundary comprised by each category of stream gradient, flow regime, and lithology as input to an agglomerative cluster analysis, which identified six clusters for the 74 watersheds intersecting or within the national forest boundary. Five of the six clusters have predominantly high gradient streams and runoff dominated by snowmelt or mixed snowmelt and rainfall. Most watersheds on the Bighorn National Forest are sensitive to alterations in water supply because of the relatively small size of streams. Although watersheds are generally less sensitive to changed sediment supply, low-gradient stream segments create sensitive sites within individual watersheds. Field verification studies indicate that this approach reasonably characterizes physical channel properties and biological associations for the study area.