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González Del Tánago M, Martínez-Fernández V, Aguiar FC, Bertoldi W, Dufour S, García de Jalón D, Garófano-Gómez V, Mandzukovski D, Rodríguez-González PM. Improving river hydromorphological assessment through better integration of riparian vegetation: Scientific evidence and guidelines. J Environ Manage 2021; 292:112730. [PMID: 33991830 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112730] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2020] [Revised: 04/09/2021] [Accepted: 04/27/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
River hydromorphology has long been subjected to huge anthropogenic pressures with severe negative impacts on related ecosystems' functioning and water quality. Therefore, improving river hydromorphological conditions represents a priority task in sustainable river management and requires proper assessment tools. It is well known that riparian vegetation plays a crucial role in sustaining river hydromorphological conditions. However, it has been nearly neglected in most hydromorphological assessment protocols, including the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). This paper reviews and synthesizes the relevance of riparian vegetation for river hydromorphology, focusing on its contribution to streamflow and sediment regime conditions. We also examine how riparian vegetation is considered in the WFD and how it is included in national hydromorphological protocols currently in use. Our findings point to a temporal mismatch between the date when the WFD came into force and the emergence of scientific and technologic advances in riparian vegetation dynamism and bio-geomorphic modeling. To overcome this misalignment, we present promising approaches for the characterization and assessment of riparian vegetation, which include the identification of vegetation units and indicators at multiple scales to support management and restoration measures. We discuss the complexity of riparian vegetation assessment, particularly with respect to the establishment of river-type-based reference conditions and the monitoring and management targets, and propose some attributes that can serve as novel indicators of the naturalness vs. artificiality of riparian vegetation. We argue that the hydromorphological context of the WFD should be revisited and offer guidance to integrate riparian vegetation in river hydromorphological monitoring and assessment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marta González Del Tánago
- Department of Natural Systems and Resources, E.T.S Ingeniería de Montes, Forestal y del Medio Natural, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Jose Antonio Nováis 10, 28040, Madrid, Spain.
| | | | - Francisca C Aguiar
- Centro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017, Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Walter Bertoldi
- Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Via Mesiano 77, 38123, Trento, Italy
| | - Simon Dufour
- Université Rennes 2, CNRS UMR LETG, Place Le Moal, 35000, Rennes, France
| | - Diego García de Jalón
- Department of Natural Systems and Resources, E.T.S Ingeniería de Montes, Forestal y del Medio Natural, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Jose Antonio Nováis 10, 28040, Madrid, Spain
| | - Virginia Garófano-Gómez
- Institut d'Investigació per a la Gestió Integrada de Zones Costaneres (IGIC), Universitat Politècnica de València, Paranimf 1, 46730, Grau de Gandia, València, Spain; Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, GEOLAB, F-63000, Clermont-Ferrand, France
| | - Dejan Mandzukovski
- Department for Forest Management Planning, PE Nacionalni šumi, Pero Nakov 128, Skopje, Macedonia
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Belletti B, Nardi L, Rinaldi M, Poppe M, Brabec K, Bussettini M, Comiti F, Gielczewski M, Golfieri B, Hellsten S, Kail J, Marchese E, Marcinkowski P, Okruszko T, Paillex A, Schirmer M, Stelmaszczyk M, Surian N. Assessing Restoration Effects on River Hydromorphology Using the Process-based Morphological Quality Index in Eight European River Reaches. Environ Manage 2018; 61:69-84. [PMID: 29150720 DOI: 10.1007/s00267-017-0961-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2017] [Accepted: 11/09/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
The Morphological Quality Index (MQI) and the Morphological Quality Index for monitoring (MQIm) have been applied to eight case studies across Europe with the objective of analyzing the hydromorphological response to various restoration measures and of comparing the results of the MQI and MQIm as a morphological assessment applied at the reach scale, with a conventional site scale physical-habitat assessment method. For each restored reach, the two indices were applied to the pre-restoration and post-restoration conditions. The restored reach was also compared to an adjacent, degraded reach. Results show that in all cases the restoration measures improved the morphological quality of the reach, but that the degree of improvement depends on many factors, including the initial morphological conditions, the length of the restored portion in relation to the reach length, and on the type of intervention. The comparison with a conventional site scale physical-habitat assessment method shows that the MQI and MQIm are best suited for the evaluation of restoration effects on river hydromorphology at the geomorphologically-relevant scale of the river reach.
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Affiliation(s)
- B Belletti
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
- Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy.
| | - L Nardi
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - M Rinaldi
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - M Poppe
- University of Natural Resources and Life Science (BOKU), Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, Vienna, Austria
| | - K Brabec
- Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - M Bussettini
- National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), ISPRA, Italy
| | - F Comiti
- Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy
| | - M Gielczewski
- Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warszawa, Poland
| | - B Golfieri
- Department of Geosciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - S Hellsten
- Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, Finland
| | - J Kail
- University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany
| | - E Marchese
- Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy
| | - P Marcinkowski
- Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warszawa, Poland
| | - T Okruszko
- Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warszawa, Poland
| | - A Paillex
- Aquatic Ecology Department, EAWAG, Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - M Schirmer
- Department of Water Resources and Drinking Water, EAWAG, Switzerland
| | - M Stelmaszczyk
- Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warszawa, Poland
| | - N Surian
- Department of Geosciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
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