Restoring Europe’s rivers
A recently completed survey of the Danube Delta region will significantly improve
knowledge about water quality, the environment, current management
of water resources and human activities in the region.
Restoring Europe’s rivers
A new EU life + project RESTORE is sharing ideas and exchanging knowledge on river restoration to give professionals the information they need to bring rivers back to a natural state.
River restoration refers to a large variety of ecological, physical, spatial and management measures and practices. These are aimed at restoring the natural state and functioning of the river system in support of biodiversity, recreation, flood safety and landscape development.
For centuries society has interacted with rivers. They are an integral part of our local environment on which we historically depended for food, shelter and basic survival. Over time environmental pressures have changed rivers and the perception of rivers has changed. Today, less than 20% of Europe’s rivers and floodplains are still in their natural physical state. A new EU life + project has an innovative approach to help deliver river restoration.
Restoring natural conditions improves the resilience of the river systems and provides for the sustainable multifunctional use of estuaries, rivers and streams. River restoration directly supports the aims of the EU Water Framework Directive, and national and regional water management policies.
Access to shared knowledge. The main problem faced by practitioners in the field is not a lack of expertise, but a lack of access to shared experiences and knowledge. RESTORE is an EU life + project to share and promote information on European river catchment area restoration. The project aims to bring people together and establish networks through its website, events and conferences, to give professionals the information they need to restore rivers and improve habitats for wildlife.
A recent conference, hosted in Iasi by the Romanian National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management, brought together river restoration professionals from Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, the Netherlands and the UK. Participants discussed their experiences and learned how RESTORE can help them communicate good river restoration practices more effectively.
Learning from successful examples. In Romania, former governments had tried unsuccessfully to convert the wetlands into agricultural land, resulting in a loss of floodplains and habitats. With local partners, Romania is restoring some of these areas back to their natural state. Three of the projects were presented at the RESTORE conference in Iasi: the Ciobarciu Wetland, Lower Prut Floodplain schemes and the Danube Delta restoration which is part of the Lower Danube Green Corridor wetlands restoration, initiative. Though two of the sites have been completed (Ciobarciu in 2006 and the Lower Prut in 2010), the projects had not been widely shared until the conference.
The project’s website serves as a focal point for knowledge exchange within the European river restoration community. In addition, a wiki-based website of river restoration case studies will be launched in summer 2012. It will be possible to search for river restoration projects using parameters such as cost, substrate, land use or hydropower schemes. Practitioners are invited to contribute river restoration case studies, good practice and research to the database. Contact RESTORE to add river restoration schemes to the database, or upload them directly to the wiki beginning this summer.
For more information, please visit: www.restorerivers.eu.
