Ecosystem health (EH) being an index in assessing the stability and productivity of an ecosystem integrates different research-based information as derived from the natural, social, technical, and health sciences. Based on such assessment, proper decision for sustainable eco-management incorporating human values and perceptions is possible. The developmental pace must be geared keeping parity with the ever increasing global populations so that alongside fulfilling the needs of the hour, carrying capacity of the resource bases should be kept in reserve to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations. However, some quite unsustainable development policies and practices, particularly concerning with water management, have been in practice during last couple of centuries. Economic and social change have necessitated development, sharing, and management of existing water resources based on sound environmental principles. A sound scientific understanding should form the foundation upon which rational decisions regarding water resources management should be made. Human beings are entirely dependent for their survival, heavily on clean continental water, including streams, lakes, wetlands, and groundwater. However, clean water appears to be a limited and precious resource for the future growth of the human population. Owing to the indispensability of good quality water resource, local problems with regard to the utilizing and sharing of water resources may lead to political instability.
As the economic valuation of clean water is difficult because of several reasons, several attributes are to be considered for assigning due importance and values of clean water for human use, for developing avenues for different fisheries activities, and for creating recreational setups on of aquatic habitats alongside utilization of water for direct human consumption. The global benefits of these uses translate into multibillions dollars while intangible benefits include sustainability of the ecosystem heath of the water bodies alongside conservation of aquatic biodiversity wealth and preservation of endemic and indigenous species. Ecological studies of fresh water system are expected to help taking sound decisions emphasizing on the socioeconomic perception of an area towards water management especially in view of ongoing human threats on inland water bodies In general, the eco-health of a river is reflected in respect of maintenance of steady higher environmental flows, stability of ecosystem and diversity of organisms. Such assessment of ecosystem tend to bridge up the gap of natural, social, political, and economical perspectives of environment so much to provide the definitive scientific foundation adhering to the ongoing scientific principles in maintaining social–ecological perspectives. This approach has also enabled to understand how its composition, organization, and functions remain relatively stable and sustainable over time.
Although, such applied analytical protocol enables to understand short-term human impacts and long-term environmental consequences. But in the dynamic riverine ecosystem, such assessment is more difficult than other ecosystems as there are hardly any fixed and stable conditions to refer to, and also due to the non-availability of undisturbed point of origin. Water recognizes no political boundaries which can restrict the environmental flows of the rivers but only the floodplains in the river basins and catchment areas having their unique topographic and phreatic limits of such catchments. Most of the large rivers of the world are subjected to artificial international or natural intranational boundaries. Therefore, resources of those transboundary rivers are shared among nations and states within nations.
