Current practices for establishing environmental flows in Brazil

This paper addresses current practices adopted by Brazilian states for establishing environmental flows. At the national level, the newly created National Water Agency has not yet recommended a standard practice. Confronted with the requirement to grant or deny water rights to users, states have set minimum instream flows using low flow frequency analysis. However, efforts are currently being made to include ecological variables in the decision-making process. One difficulty with the process is the dearth of information regarding instream flow needs for Brazilian species and recreation. International experience on setting environmental flows is valuable, but care must be taken in its application to the Brazilian reality. Finally the authors express their views on the directions that Brazilian regulatory agencies are likely to adopt in the near future for setting environmental flows