Chapter 27 Moving Forward The Implementation Challenge for Environmental Water Management

Although there has been significant progress in environmental water management across the globe, a number of challenges remain in the establishment and delivery of environmental water regimes on the ground—the implementation challenge. This final chapter focuses on the directions to achieve successful implementation of environmental water policies and practice into the future, and is organized around six key questions: (1) How much water do rivers need? (2) How do we increase the number of rivers where environmental water is provided? (3) How can we embed environmental water management as a core element of water resource planning? (4) How can knowledge and experience be transferred and scaled more easily? (5) How can we enhance the legitimacy of environmental water programs? (6) How can we support the inclusion of adaptive management as standard practice? Many of these ongoing challenges are not technical in nature, but rather related to concepts of engagement, partnership, legitimacy, sharing of knowledge, and enabling institutional policies and structures.