Methods, models, tools to assess the hydromorphology of rivers - Part 5 Applications

Work Package 6 of REFORM focuses on monitoring protocols, survey methods, assessment procedures, guidelines and other tools for characterising the consequences of physical degradation and restoration, and for planning and designing successful river restoration and mitigation measures and programmes. Deliverable 6.2 of Work Package 6 is the final report on methods, models and tools to assess the hydromorphology of rivers. This report summarises the outputs of Tasks 6.1 (Selection of indicators for cost-effective monitoring and development of monitoring protocols to assess river degradation and restoration), 6.2 (Improve existing methods to survey and assess the hydromorphology of river ecosystems), and 6.3 (Identification and selection of existing hydromorphological and ecological models and tools suitable to plan and evaluate river restoration).

The deliverable is structured in five parts. Part 1 provides an overall framework for hydromorphological assessment. Part 2 includes thematic annexes on protocols for monitoring indicators and models. Part 3 is a detailed guidebook for the application of the Morphological Quality Index (MQI). Part 4 describes the Geomorphic Units survey and classification System. Part 5 (this volume) includes a series of applications to some case studies of some of the tools and methods reported in the previous parts.

Summary of Deliverable 6.2 Part 5

This part provides a series of applications of some of the methods reported in the Part 1. The document is organised in three chapters. In Chapter 1, the Morphological Quality Index (MQI) and the Morphological Quality Index for monitoring (MQIm) have been applied to eight case studies. Chapter 2 presents the application of semi-automated procedures based on remote sensing datasets for monitoring and characterising channel forms to the River Orco (Italy). In Chapter 3, the Hydromorphological Evaluation Tool (HYMET) is applied to the Drau River (Austria).

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