Developed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), E-flow calculators are a family of software built to rapidly assess ”environmental flows” to help scientists and decision makers better understand how much water remains for supply and use in a river basin or other system.
Environmental flows or E-flows, describe the quantity, quality and timing of water flows needed to sustain freshwater ecosystems so they can continue to provide services to society. The online E-flow calculator can help decision-makers decide how to balance water use needs with environmental needs by establishing an E-flows baseline.
The E-flow calculator has been put to use in river basins across the world. And now, Nepal’s Department of Water Resources and Irrigation used an estimation of the country’s E-flow requirements to support the development of the country’s National Irrigation Master Plan. In response to a request for assistance, IWMI developed the first desktop tool for E-flow assessment in Western Nepal under United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Nepal's financial assistance to Digo Jal Bikas Program (2017 - 2019). The Western Nepal E-flows calculator (WENEFC) is a simple user-friendly software package for rapid analysis of E-flows in one of the most climate vulnerable areas of the country.
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