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ABSTRACT Managing freshwater resources sustainably under future climatic and hydrological uncertainty poses novel challenges. Rehabilitation of ageing infrastructure and construction of new
dams are widely viewed as solutions to diminish climate risk, but attaining the broad goal of freshwater sustainability will require expansion of the prevailing water resources management
paradigm beyond narrow economic criteria to include socially valued ecosystem functions and services. We introduce a new decision framework, eco-engineering decision scaling (EEDS), that
explicitly and quantitatively explores trade-offs in stakeholder-defined engineering and ecological performance metrics across a range of possible management actions under unknown future
hydrological and climate states. We illustrate its potential application through a hypothetical case study of the Iowa River, USA. EEDS holds promise as a powerful framework for
operationalizing freshwater sustainability under future hydrological uncertainty by fostering collaboration across historically conflicting perspectives of water resource engineering and
river conservation ecology to design and operate water infrastructure for social and environmental benefits. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of
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ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS DIAGNOSING CHALLENGES AND
SETTING PRIORITIES FOR SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE Article Open access 17 January 2022 A META-MODEL OF SOCIO-HYDROLOGICAL PHENOMENA FOR SUSTAINABLE WATER
MANAGEMENT Article 13 November 2023 INDICATOR METRICS AND TEMPORAL AGGREGATIONS INTRODUCE AMBIGUITIES IN WATER SCARCITY ESTIMATES Article Open access 02 July 2024 REFERENCES * _International
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Resour. Dev._ 30, 377–390 (2014). Article Google Scholar Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We acknowledge S. Steinschneider for developing the stochastic weather generator for the Iowa
River Basin; S. Wi for the VIC hydrologic model development; D. LeFever for support in developing the reservoir systems model; and R. Olsen for his help in providing hydraulic modelling
tools and economic information for the Coralville Lake flood control system. Special thanks to P. Clark for artwork in Fig. 1. Additional support for C.M.B. and C.M.S was provided by the NSF
CAREER Award (CBET-1054762). The views in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the OECD or its member countries. This article has been peer
reviewed and approved for publication consistent with USGS Fundamental Science Practices (http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1367/,) and we thank J. Friedman of the USGS for his constructive
comments. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. This paper resulted from a synthesis project funded
by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under National Science Foundation Award #DBI-1052875. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Biology and
Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Campus Mail 1878, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 80523, Colorado, USA N. LeRoy Poff * Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of
Massachusetts, 12B Marston Hall, 130 Natural Resources Road, Amherst, 01003, Massachusetts, USA Casey M. Brown & Caitlin M. Spence * US Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center,
2150 Centre Avenue, Building C, Fort Collins, 80526, Colorado, USA Theodore E. Grantham * Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, 7640 NW Hoodview Circle, Corvallis, 97330, Orlando, USA John
H. Matthews * National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, University of Maryland, 1 Park Place, Annapolis, 21401, Maryland, USA Margaret A. Palmer * Department of Geography, Loughborough
University, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, UK Robert L. Wilby * Department of Scenarios and Policy Analysis, Deltares, PO Box 177, Delft, 2600 MH, The Netherlands Marjolijn Haasnoot * Delft
University of Technology, Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management, PO Box 5015, Delft, 2600 GA, The Netherlands Marjolijn Haasnoot * US Army Corps of Engineers, Institute for Water
Resources, 7701 Telegraph Road, Alexandria, 22315, Virginia, USA Guillermo F. Mendoza * Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2 rue André-Pascal, Paris, 75775,
France Kathleen C. Dominique * National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, 1 Park Place, Annapolis, 21401, Maryland, USA Andres Baeza Authors * N. LeRoy Poff View author publications You
can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Casey M. Brown View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Theodore E. Grantham View
author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * John H. Matthews View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar *
Margaret A. Palmer View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Caitlin M. Spence View author publications You can also search for this author
inPubMed Google Scholar * Robert L. Wilby View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Marjolijn Haasnoot View author publications You can also
search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Guillermo F. Mendoza View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Kathleen C. Dominique View author
publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Andres Baeza View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS
N.L.P. and J.H.M. conceived the original project. N.L.P., T.E.G. and C.M.B. led the drafting of the text. C.M.S., C.M.B., T.E.G. and N.L.P. led the case study analysis. N.L.P, C.M.B.,
T.E.G., J.H.M, M.A.P., C.M.S., R.L.W., M.H., G.F.M., K.C.D. and A.B. contributed to the intellectual content through workshop participation and writing. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence
to N. LeRoy Poff. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing financial interests. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary Information
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uncertainty with eco-engineering decision scaling. _Nature Clim Change_ 6, 25–34 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2765 Download citation * Received: 25 February 2015 * Accepted: 21
July 2015 * Published: 14 September 2015 * Issue Date: January 2016 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2765 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to
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