The EU Biodiversity Strategy includes the target that at least 25000 km of rivers should be restored into free-flowing rivers by 2030 through the removal of primarily obsolete barriers and the restoration of floodplains and wetlands. This document proposes criteria for identifying free-flowing rivers, taking into account longitudinal, lateral, and vertical connectivity at local and catchment scales. The aim is to provide a tool that can be used by authorities to determine the length of free-flowing rivers in their catchments. In addition, the tool can be used to predict the increase in free-flowing river length resulting from barrier removal and other restoration measures. This will help prioritising measures that can contribute to the 25,000 km target.
Key elements of the method are (1) segmentation of the river into homogeneous reaches; (2) criteria for longitudinal, lateral, and vertical connectivity within a homogeneous reach; (3) a large-scale assessment taking into account sediment connectivity and migration barriers for target fish species; and (4) minimum length criteria to ensure hydromorphological processes and ecological functioning.
VAN DE BUND Wouter;
BARTKOVA Tereza;
BELKA Kamila;
BUSSETTINI M;
CALLEJA Belen;
CHRISTIANSEN Trine;
GOLTARA Andrea;
MAGDALENO Gonzalo;
MÜHLMANN Helena;
OFENBÖCK Gisela;
PARASIEWICZ Piotr;
PERUZZI Cosimo;
SCHMITT Kathrin;
SCHULTZE Ann-Kristin;
RECKENDORFER Walter;
BASTINO Valentina;
2024-06-21
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC137919
978-92-68-18012-9 (online),
978-92-68-18011-2 (print),
1831-9424 (online),
1018-5593 (print),
EUR 31972 EN,
OP KJ-NA-31-972-EN-N (online),
OP KJ-NA-31-972-EN-C (print),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC137919,
10.2760/402517 (online),
10.2760/212220 (print),
