A conceptual decision-making for the ecological base flow of rivers considering the economic value of ecosystem services of rivers in water shortage area of Northwest China

•Our objective in this paper is to construct a decision-making framework for river ecological base flow considering the total economic value of economic service functions and ecological service functions of rivers system.•This framework can provide a valuable reference for decision- making the ecological base flow of river in the water shortage area of northwest China.•This conceptual framework can provide a quantitative basis for water management in water shortages area. Understanding how much water should be left in rivers is a hot topic around the world. Here, we proposed a decision-making framework for ecological base flow of rivers considering the total economic value of economic service functions and ecological service functions of rivers system. This framework mainly includes three key steps. Firstly, we analyzed the ecological services functions of rivers system (i.e., water used for the ecological base flow of rivers) and economic service functions (i.e., water used for economic sectors) and explained their relationship. Secondly, we calculate the economic values of economic service functions and ecological services functions of rivers system, respectively. Finally, we determined the recommended ecological base flow of rivers by reaching the maximum value in the change process of the total economic value of the ecological and economic services functions of rivers system. We applied this framework to determine the river ecological base flow in the Baoji Section of Weihe River, which is the largest tributary of the Yellow River, Northwest China. The calculations results revealed that the recommended ecological base flow of rivers is 35.02% of the natural runoff in Baoji section of Weihe River. This work can provide a valuable reference for decision-making the ecological base flow of river in the water shortage area of Northwest China.