Canada - Supporting a provincial framework for guiding environmental flow and critical environmental flow threshold assessment methods

Description

The Aquatic Ecosystems Branch of the Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship invites proposals from firms with innovative ideas, experience, and expertise in the field of Environmental Flows. Under the BC Water Sustainability Act (WSA), consideration of Environmental Flow Needs (EFNs) in decision-making is meant to strike a balance between licensed water use and the maintenance of healthy aquatic ecosystems and fish friendly flows. While EFNs are the quantifiable streamflow levels routinely used as management targets for licensed water withdrawals (i.e., instream flow requirements), Critical Environmental Flow Thresholds (CEFTs) are the bottom-line flow limits often used to implement protection orders (WSA Sections 87 & 88) and maintain minimum ecological functions (e.g., fish passage/migration). Determining these different streamflow values is often highly complex, locally specific, and interdisciplinary in nature because of the numerous values and processes (e.g. species/life-stage flow requirements, climate change, cultural flow needs, groundwater, licensed use, etc.) that require careful consideration. Consequently, EFNs and CEFTs are often absent or only loosely defined for many river systems subject to water use across BC. EFNs are currently generated following a variety of approaches in BC, and an absence of standardized methods and guidelines undermines consistency in fish, water, and habitat management across the province. There is also a need to confront EFN methods and CEFT definitions with credible data to determine their appropriateness.The objectives of this project are to 1) review and summarize the available EFN/CEFT assessment methods, key differences among them, and various contexts for application (e.g. desktop, field, etc.) currently applied across BC and other jurisdictions (e.g. USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa); 2) review and summarize the associated criteria available for determining EF thresholds using any  different method or context of application; 3) review or develop decision-tree frameworks and associated guidelines for determining appropriate EFN/CEFT assessment methods within a BC context that are regionally appropriate and scalable, and based on the findings in Objectives 1 & 2; 4) design field-based case studies to test, validate, and refine the top-ranking methods and guidelines developed in Objective 3.     Further details as to the scope of this opportunity and the requirements can be found within this RFP.

Opportunity closing date

18 September 2024

Value of contract

to be confirmed