Ecosystem Services in Water Resources and Their Management: Investing in Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

The symbiotic relationships among water, natural environment, and sustainable economic growth are now part of conventional water wisdom. Water is embedded in all aspects of natural resource management for inclusive and sustainable growth, i.e., energy, agriculture, transport, and other productive activities, which demand sustaining the ecosystems on which everything else depends. Water-related ecosystems provide multiple benefits and services to societies, making them essential for reaching several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the ability of these ecosystems to provide services is not unlimited but is dependent on the type of ecosystem and its full functioning. It is acknowledged that both can easily be hampered by human-induced pressures. These pressures may affect ecosystem structures and catchment features, thus modifying the conditions under which each ecosystem operates, and their capacity to provide services becomes affected, along with the values associated with the latter. The ecosystem services (ES) concept can offer a valuable approach for linking human activities and nature, and a solid reason for the conservation and restoration of natural ecosystems. The ES concept is widely recognized as an integrative approach that can capture different policy objectives in a single assessment, and therefore, its application for a sustainable management of ecosystems is increasingly appreciated and utilized by policy makers. Thus, the need to study the links among water quality, ecological and conservation status, water security, and the delivery of ecosystem services in a changing world has tremendously increased.

Despite the increasing interest in the topic, it is still a relatively new concept, especially among water policy makers and managers. Since the objective of the EU water Policy along with the main strategic directives, i.e., Water Framework Directive, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Flood Directive, Bathing Directive, and Nitrate Directive, is the sustainability of aquatic ecosystems, the goal is to identify how the ES approach can support and supplement the EU Policy or even become embedded in it.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions that advance our knowledge on how to integrate the ES concept into various sectoral and governance levels, how these numerous ES are related to basic aquatic ecological functions, and how these are linked to biodiversity and water security and, further, to the water–energy–food nexus. The restoration of water-related ecosystems and the associated ES (regulating, cultural, provisioning) will be particularly appreciated. Relationships between sustainability indicators and ES are also of crucial importance to highlight the way ES can contribute to achieve SDGs. We are also looking forward to exploring the capacity of the ecohydrological, hydromorphological, and biological indices to assess the ES in all types of aquatic ecosystems.

Nevertheless, any knowledge acquired needs to be implemented in practice, and the ES concept is an “open issue”, so the stakeholders’ vision is one of our strategic topics. Transdisciplinary papers with the co-affiliation of academic and non-academic experts and water managers, consultants, policy- makers are particularly welcome.

Prof. Dr. Ifigenia Kagalou
Dr. Dionissis Latinopoulos
Dr. Chrysoula Ntislidou
Guest Editors

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