The co-construction of environmental (instream) flows and associated cultural ecosystem benefits

Management of water resources of major river basins, particularly of transboundary rivers (multi-state or multi-nation), is complex and has been the subject of much scholarship (Robinson et al. 2011; Bruns et al. 2005; Garrick 2015; Garrick et al. 2014; Bark et al. 2014). Issues surrounding institutional fragmentation, political contestation, scalar factors and challenges for collaboration are prominent in the literature on water governance and integrated water resource management. An emergent theme in the research is the importance of social, economic and especially cultural values associated with river systems and the development of frameworks that treat rivers and river management actions as part of a social, ecological and political system (Bark et al. accepted; Butler et al. 2013; Folke 2006; Jackson and Barber 2013; Lebel et al. 2013). Yet, in the growing number of studies concentrating on water governance, too little attention is given to the critical role of culture and cultural processes that are generated by interactions between humans and their environment and influenced by the dynamics of social experiences and interactions (Johnston et al. 2012).