Fact sheets for restoration projects

 This deliverable D4.5 summarizes information and experiences for thirteen river types and lists meta-data analysis results based on 844 publications. The report starts with a summary of a literature meta-data analysis, using the REFORM river reach typology. The main component of the report deals with fact sheets and per river type provides a synthesis of restoration experiences describing best and efficient restoration practices, including promising restoration techniques and variables suited for monitoring restoration.

Of the 22 REFORM river types, 12 types occurred in the database together with four combinations of 2-3 river types. In total, 11 pressure categories and 23 pressures were classified. Channelization was the most common pressure category in all river types. This is not surprising as the focus of the review was on hydromorphology. Second was habitat degradation followed closely by barriers/connectivity, bank degradation and flow alteration. In-channel habitat conditions are mostly improved by restoration with a broad spectrum over actual measures in this category. Next floodplain and river planform appeared mostly restored. Within the floodplain the attention went to reconnecting and creating existing backwaters, oxbow-lakes and wetlands. The river planform measures dealt with re-meandering, widening and re-braiding. The riparian zone, mainly the development of natural vegetation on buffer strips, also was often implemented. Hydrological measures were much less often executed.

The main component of the report deals with fact sheets and per river type provides a synthesis of restoration experiences describing best and efficient restoration practices, including promising restoration techniques and variables suited for monitoring restoration. The river typology that is being developed for the classification of fact sheets is based on an integration of four different classifications commonly used in Europe. Each single fact sheet consists of the paragraphs: River type name, Pressure categories/pressures, Measure categories/measures, and Monitoring scheme.

The river typology adopted for the fact sheets in this Deliverable differs from the river reach typology developed in REFORM. The relation between these typologies is not straightforward. The river typology adopted here, refers to the catchment or subcatchment setting of a river in terms of altitude, size and geology. This setting does not change in time. In contrast, the REFORM river reach typology is designed for assessing the hydromorphological functioning of individual river reaches. REFORM river reach types may change in time because they represent the response of the river reaches to processes of flow, sediment and vegetation, which can all change through time. Furthermore, river catchments or sub-catchments of a single type according to the typology used in this deliverable may contain several reaches of different REFORM types, and indeed all of the REFORM river types could potentially be found within many of the river types used in this deliverable. Notwithstanding the differences in nature, purpose and scale of these two different typologies, Table 11in the deliverable presents an indication of the range of REFORM river types that might most commonly be encountered in reaches of river located within the categories of the river typology adopted in this deliverable.

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