ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Environmental integrity, although used in several publications, requires a single, clear and practical definition that is therefore useful as a guide to the kind of research and training that will help achieve “environmental integrity” in water resources, particularly in developing countries. This paper provides a review of similar concepts, and a definition, and then examines four examples to illustrate the usefulness of the environmental integrity concept: the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), and three varied aquatic systems of Bonaire in the Caribbean, the Mekong River in Asia and the Mara River in Africa. In general, this definition seems to have some advantages of flexibility compared with the EU WFD and is likely to be more acceptable to stakeholders, because it is firmly linked to the priorities for water use by people, as well to maintaining ecological status and the goods and services that this provides.
