Water management is facing a growing number of challenges in many river basins worldwide, as the equal distribution of the available water resources is increasingly influenced by several, uncertain climatic and anthropic pressures. Within the current and projected water scarcity and drought scenario, such issue represents even a greater challenge in those basins that have been massively regulated in the XX century, as water managers are asked to find balanced policies to stay ahead with multiple, interdependent and ever-increasing water-related requirements. In this context, water conflict has become a recurring problem, with the freshwater ecosystems becoming the sole providers of unbearable human water needs and experiencing a severe alteration of their natural renewability and ecological integrity. In fact, the concern of sustaining the freshwater ecosystems has evolved throughout the years, coming to the fore since the 1990s under the concept of "ecosystem services", defined as the multiple benefits that people obtain from ecosystems. With a high number of challenges still ahead for implementing such paradigm in real-world water management practices, few investigations inspect the long-term evolution of highly regulated basins, being vulnerable freshwater systems characterized by a profusion of ecosystem services in a context of complex management policies and changing anthropic and climatic pressures. We focus our attention on the highly interconnected Garda-Mincio system (Northern Italy), further broadening the results to the regulated basins of the European perialpine region. First, to examine the modification of the freshwater systems from their pristine to their regulated conditions, we carried out an extensive collection of daily hydro-meteorological data by consulting public online sources as well as digitizing historical data contained in hand-written documents. The resulting database, which represents a valuable source of long-term daily hydro-meteorological data for the Garda-Mincio system, additionally underscored the complexity of constructing and maintaining a consistent and up-to-date database within an inter-regional context. The collected data were then adopted to investigate the climatic and anthropogenic drivers that have progressively influenced water availability, the provision of the changing water demands and the trade-offs with the existing water ecosystem services over the last two centuries. Statistical analyses were performed to outline the evolution of the annual and seasonal trends of Lake Garda water levels and outflows over the period 1888-2020, discussing the role of the Salionze Dam operational rules (completed in 1951) as well as the influence of the main water needs of the downstream Mincio River basin (i.e. hydropower production, irrigation and fluvial ecosystem sustenance). The role of hydro-meteorological factors was assessed by implementing a water balance model for Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy, over the period 1928-2020, performing uncertainty and sensitivity analyses on specific water balance components (i.e. over-lake evaporation and basin evapotranspiration). We then focus our analyses on the management of the hydraulic infrastructures that regulate the first and highly water-stressed stretch of the Mincio River downstream Lake Garda, i.e. the Salionze Dam and the Pozzolo-Marenghello infrastructures, where both high and low flow conditions reveal the inability of the current operational rules to support the new variety of water abstractions while maintaining appropriate environmental flow conditions and flood protection. These analyses were carried out through in-situ measurements and numerical simulations, updating the aging rating curves of the existing hydraulic infrastructures. Drawing on the Garda-Mincio system, we inspected the evolution of the freshwater regimes within the European perialpine lakes framework, discussing the outcomes to describe which common factors drove management policies in the area. Eventually, we discuss our outcomes recommending future sustainable and adaptive water management policies in the area.

A perspectiva de elaborar planejamentos em áreas de floresta a partir da concepção de serviços ecossistêmicos, principalmente serviços hídricos, expandiu-se em muito pouco tempo, principalmente porque essa estratégia evidencia, claramente, como a perda desse sistema natural por atividades antrópicas pode causar perdas irreparáveis ao próprio bem-estar humano. Trabalhar planejamento ambiental sob esse enfoque exige a adoção de uma forte base teórica sobre serviços hídricos; um modelo que permita comparar paisagens em diferentes condições de uso e conservação de floresta; e clareza sobre o tipo de valoração empregado na identificação dos limites de perdas de floresta, de forma a não comprometer a oferta necessária desses serviços. Este estudo defende que no Cerrado do estado de São Paulo, em seus remanescentes caracterizados como sistemas florestados em áreas savânicas, é possível reconhecer a dependência direta entre quantidades de floresta, de usos humanos e de serviços hídricos em microbacias hidrográficas e, em meio disso, valorar a oferta desses serviços e comparar paisagens. Para fortalecer esse argumento foram selecionadas 10 unidades territoriais no estado de São Paulo com diferentes percentuais de cobertura florestal e campo antrópico. Em cada unidade foram obtidos dados de 13 parâmetros físico-químico-biológicos, que foram hierarquizados pelo algoritmo Random Forest de forma a aferir suas relações com a quantidade de floresta e formular índices de sete serviços ecossistêmicos hídricos. Os parâmetros que se mostraram mais adequados para monitoramento dos serviços hídricos frente aos ganhos de floresta, com grande peso hierárquico na formulação dos índices, foram oxigênio dissolvido, amônio e fósforo total. Os índices obtidos permitiram apontar que para a manutenção de 50% do potencial total dos sete serviços hídricos em paisagens com campos antrópicos são necessários pelo menos 20% de cobertura florestal, mas os melhores ganhos potenciais de serviços ocorreram a partir de 70% / The prospect of elaborating environmental planning in forest areas from the ecosystem services concept, especially water-related ecosystem services, has expanded greatly in a very short time, mainly because this strategy clearly demonstrate how the loss of this natural system by anthropic activities can cause irreparable losses to human well-being. Working with environmental planning under this approach requires the adoption of a strong theoretical basis on water-related ecosystem services; a model that allows to compare landscapes under different conditions of human use and forest conservation; and insight about the type of valuation used to recognize forest loss thresholds that must not be crossed, in order to do not compromise the necessary supply of these services. This study argues that in São Paulo state Cerrado (brazilian savanna), in its remnants characterized as forest systems in savanna areas, it is possible to recognize the direct dependence between forest quantities, human uses and water-related ecosystem services in catchments and, thereby, value the supply of these services and compare landscapes. To strengthen this argument, 10 territorial units were selected in São Paulo state with different percentages of forest and anthropic grasslands. In each unit, data were obtained from 13 physical-chemical-biological parameters, which were hierarchized by Random Forest algorithm in order to assess their relationships with forest quantity and formulate indexes of seven water-related ecosystem services. The most adequate parameters to monitor water-related ecosystem services in the face of forest gains with great hierarchical weight in the index formulation were dissolved oxygen, ammonia and total phosphorus. The obtained indexes allowed indicating that for the maintenance of 50% of the total potential of the seven water-related ecosystem services in landscapes with anthropic grasslands, more than 20% of forest cover is required, but the best potential gains of water-related ecosystem services occurred from 70% of forest cover

A perspectiva de elaborar planejamentos em áreas de floresta a partir da concepção de serviços ecossistêmicos, principalmente serviços hídricos, expandiu-se em muito pouco tempo, principalmente porque essa estratégia evidencia, claramente, como a perda desse sistema natural por atividades antrópicas pode causar perdas irreparáveis ao próprio bem-estar humano. Trabalhar planejamento ambiental sob esse enfoque exige a adoção de uma forte base teórica sobre serviços hídricos; um modelo que permita comparar paisagens em diferentes condições de uso e conservação de floresta; e clareza sobre o tipo de valoração empregado na identificação dos limites de perdas de floresta, de forma a não comprometer a oferta necessária desses serviços. Este estudo defende que no Cerrado do estado de São Paulo, em seus remanescentes caracterizados como sistemas florestados em áreas savânicas, é possível reconhecer a dependência direta entre quantidades de floresta, de usos humanos e de serviços hídricos em microbacias hidrográficas e, em meio disso, valorar a oferta desses serviços e comparar paisagens. Para fortalecer esse argumento foram selecionadas 10 unidades territoriais no estado de São Paulo com diferentes percentuais de cobertura florestal e campo antrópico. Em cada unidade foram obtidos dados de 13 parâmetros físico-químico-biológicos, que foram hierarquizados pelo algoritmo Random Forest de forma a aferir suas relações com a quantidade de floresta e formular índices de sete serviços ecossistêmicos hídricos. Os parâmetros que se mostraram mais adequados para monitoramento dos serviços hídricos frente aos ganhos de floresta, com grande peso hierárquico na formulação dos índices, foram oxigênio dissolvido, amônio e fósforo total. Os índices obtidos permitiram apontar que para a manutenção de 50% do potencial total dos sete serviços hídricos em paisagens com campos antrópicos são necessários pelo menos 20% de cobertura florestal, mas os melhores ganhos potenciais de serviços ocorreram a partir de 70% / The prospect of elaborating environmental planning in forest areas from the ecosystem services concept, especially water-related ecosystem services, has expanded greatly in a very short time, mainly because this strategy clearly demonstrate how the loss of this natural system by anthropic activities can cause irreparable losses to human well-being. Working with environmental planning under this approach requires the adoption of a strong theoretical basis on water-related ecosystem services; a model that allows to compare landscapes under different conditions of human use and forest conservation; and insight about the type of valuation used to recognize forest loss thresholds that must not be crossed, in order to do not compromise the necessary supply of these services. This study argues that in São Paulo state Cerrado (brazilian savanna), in its remnants characterized as forest systems in savanna areas, it is possible to recognize the direct dependence between forest quantities, human uses and water-related ecosystem services in catchments and, thereby, value the supply of these services and compare landscapes. To strengthen this argument, 10 territorial units were selected in São Paulo state with different percentages of forest and anthropic grasslands. In each unit, data were obtained from 13 physical-chemical-biological parameters, which were hierarchized by Random Forest algorithm in order to assess their relationships with forest quantity and formulate indexes of seven water-related ecosystem services. The most adequate parameters to monitor water-related ecosystem services in the face of forest gains with great hierarchical weight in the index formulation were dissolved oxygen, ammonia and total phosphorus. The obtained indexes allowed indicating that for the maintenance of 50% of the total potential of the seven water-related ecosystem services in landscapes with anthropic grasslands, more than 20% of forest cover is required, but the best potential gains of water-related ecosystem services occurred from 70% of forest cover

Livestock production is one of the largest and fastest growing agricultural subsectors in the world, contributing almost 40 % of agricultural GDP. The present global trend of livestock intensification affects water demand, resulting in local alterations of hydrological features. This study quantifies water requirements for livestock production and links them to local changes in water-related ecosystem services (WRES). It examines the present situation in Uruguayan beef production as it undergoes an intensification process by analyzing three systems: traditional extensive production, mixed systems and intensive production.Mixed production systems are most water-effective in terms of water requirement. However, extensive production has the least negative long-term effects on the studied WRESs: soil productivity, erosion control and grass, crop and livestock production. Intensive systems contribute the largest negative impacts on soil productivity due to management practices, e.g. continuous cropping and fertilizer application (which is also costly). However, intensification also increases short-term positive effects on crop and livestock production. Mixed systems offer opportunities to increase livestock production, water use efficiency and mitigate soil degradation. However, a threshold value to avoid an undesirable regime shift in soil productivity remains to be determined.This framework developed herein, maps and quantifies local ecosystem effects associated with livestock production from a water perspective. It required simplifications and thus needs further improvements to be of practical use as a tool for best management practices of livestock production. Such tools can assist decision-makers in Uruguay on how to manage multiple ecosystem services in an agricultural landscape and enhance the provision of desired ES without degrading other key ecosystem processes, goods and services. For sustainable production of livestock in Uruguay, one should consider if the tradeoff between long-term negative impacts of intensification on regulating services is justifiable in the context of the short-term economic gains in provisioning services.