Environmental Review: A Framework for Sustainable Water Management: Integrating Ecological Constraints in Policy Tools in the United Kingdom
Freshwater in the United Kingdom constitutes a typical example of a supposedly abundant resource for which no system of sustainable use and management has been planned in the past Indeed, as H. Cook ( The Protection and Conservation of Water Resources: A British Perspective , 1998) has shown, it has been a neglected area of concern compared with other areas of public policy. Recent droughts, problems of water pollution caused by excessive levels of nitrate and pesticides in groundwater, and acidification and pollution by heavy metals, as well as freshwater wildlife at risk, constitute important environmental problems. The management of water needs guidance, and this guidance needs to be very strongly ecologically based. However, this ecological information must also be integrated at the economic-policy level if water resources, which are fundamental for the survival of ecosystems, economies, and humans, are to be managed in a sustainable way in the long run. This paper presents a policy framework that is based on the reform of national accounts heavily relied on by policy makers, that uses “indicators of sustainability” (more and more viewed as the practical solution to operationalize the concept of sustainability), and that is oriented towards the pursuit of economic goals while respecting ecological constraints (“sustainability standards”). It is hoped that the construction of such a framework, based on the review of existing literature, can be a useful contribution to the sustainable management of water resources.