REFORM - WP6

Guidance and decision support for cost-effective river and floodplain restoration and its benefits

tom.buijse@deltares.nl — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 14:46:23 +0000

The present report presents guidance and decision support for cost-effective river and floodplain restoration and its benefits. It serves as a portal to the web-based information system or wiki developed within REFORM and summarizes the contents, structure and functionality of this wiki. The wiki guides the planning process and design of cost-effective and hydromorphologically relevant restoration and its benefits.

It has been structured around the phases of the river basin management planning cycle. A prerequisite of planning is a good understanding of how a river works and an evaluation of status by asking, “What’s wrong?” An integrated planning framework supports the design of river restoration measuresand addresses the question, “How can we improve?”, including risk analysis, the wider benefits of restoration and the restoration potential of other human interventions. This framework is cyclic for both programmes of measures in entire river basins and the planning and evaluation of individual projects.

This report thus provides guidance on finding results of REFORM. All further details are given in the wiki, the REFORM deliverables and scientific publications.

D6.3_REFORM_deliverable_Guidelines_and_decision_support v4.pdf

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Deliverables:

D6.3 Guidelines and decision support for cost-effective river-floodplain restoration and its benefits

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Final

Policy Brief:

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

tom.buijse@deltares.nl — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 09:35:40 +0000

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).

6.2 Methods to assess hydromorphology of rivers part V.pdf

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D6.2 Final report on methods, models, tools to assess the hydromorphology of rivers

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Final

Policy Brief:

The Geomorphic Units survey and classification System (GUS)

tom.buijse@deltares.nl — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 09:33:45 +0000

Work Package 6 of REFORM focuses on monitoring protocols, survey methods, assessment procedures, gudelines 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 (this volume) describes the Geomorphic Units survey and classification System. Part 5 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 4

This part provides a detailed description of the Geomorphic Units survey and classification System (GUS). This method is used to identify, characterise and analyse the assemblage of geomorphic units within a given reach. The system is suitable for integrating the MQI and is also aimed at allowing the establishment of links between hydromorphological conditions at reach scale, characteristic geomorphic units, and related biological conditions.

The document is organised in two parts. Part A provides the general background and describes characteristics, analysis, testing, and typical applications of the method. Part B is an Illustrated Guidebook to the identification and classification of geomorphic units. A series of Forms for the application of the GUS are reported in Appendix 1. The list of gemorphic units included in the GUS is reported in Appendix 2. A brief glossary of significant terms is reported in Appendix 3.

6.2 Methods to assess hydromorphology of rivers part IV revised.pdf

Work packages:

Deliverables:

D6.2 Final report on methods, models, tools to assess the hydromorphology of rivers

Document type:

File status:

Final

Policy Brief:

Guidebook for the evaluation of stream morphological conditions by the Morphological Quality Index (MQI)

tom.buijse@deltares.nl — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 09:31:05 +0000

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 (this volume) 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 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 3

This part provides a detailed description of the Morphological Quality Index (MQI), and the related version adapted for monitoring (Morphological Quality Index for monitoring, MQIm). The Morphological Quality Index was originally developed in Italy, and then expanded to other European countries within the context of the REFORM project. The Morphological Quality Index for monitoring (MQIm), has been specifically designed to assess the environmental impact assessment of interventions, including both flood mitigation and restoration actions.

The Evaluation Forms for confined and for partly confined/unconfined streams respectively, a detailed Guide to the Compilation of the Evaluation Forms, which is used to support the application of the two indices, and an Illustrated Guide are provided in the Appendixes of this part.

In 2016 the method has been further improved to better address low energy rivers (Rinaldi et al 2016), which is also available as download below. The updated MQI excel sheets are available in a ZIP file below (' MQI_ver_oct_2016.zip').

6.2 Methods to assess hydromorphology of rivers part III revised.pdf

Rinaldi et al 2016 MQI_final_Aug16.pdf

MQI_ver_oct_2016.ZIP

Work packages:

Deliverables:

D6.2 Final report on methods, models, tools to assess the hydromorphology of rivers

Document type:

Guidelines

File status:

Final

Policy Brief:

Methods, models, tools to assess the hydromorphology of rivers - Part 2 Thematic annexes

tom.buijse@deltares.nl — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 09:27:16 +0000

The deliverable is structured in five parts. Part 1 provides an overall framework for hydromorphological assessment. Part 2 (this volume) 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 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 2

Part 2 of Deliverable 6.2 provides detailed information on some specific aspect outlined in Part 1.

In Annex A, a series of indicators is presented for the different stages of hydrological characterization, assessment of current status (alteration) and design (rehabilitation measures), including groundwater – surface water indicators.

Annex B reviews monitoring indicators, evaluation tools, and analyses which are suitable for monitoring morphological conditions.

Annex C reports monitoring protocols for riparian vegetation.

In Annex D, a summary of models used in hydromorphology is reported.

6.2 Methods to assess hydromorphology of rivers part II.pdf

Work packages:

Deliverables:

D6.2 Final report on methods, models, tools to assess the hydromorphology of rivers

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File status:

Final

Policy Brief:

Methods, models, tools to assess the hydromorphology of rivers - Part 1 Main report

tom.buijse@deltares.nl — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 09:23:43 +0000

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 (this volume) 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 includes a series of applications to several case studies of several tools and methods reported in the previous parts.

Summary of Deliverable 6.2 Part 1

Objective

The aim of this Deliverable is to provide a flexible, open-ended framework of procedures and tools through which practitioners can summarise river conditions, set monitoring activities, support the selection of appropriate and sustainable restoration actions.

Methods and Results

The overall assessment framework presented in this Deliverable is a more prescriptive version of the open-ended REFORM hydromorphological framework developed in Deliverable 2.1. Therefore, it provides a more formal set of methods and tools with which to practically assess and monitor hydromorphological conditions. Some of the key features of the REFORM hydromorphological framework presented here are the following: (i) it provides a flexible set of procedures such that member states can incorporate their own data sets and methods; (ii) it is organised in a sequence of stages, each one containing a series of procedural steps that support the assessment of river conditions in a consistent manner; (iii) its application allows representative reaches or sites to be selected for monitoring river conditions, and for appropriate upscaling or downscaling of information; (iv) it can be used to classify and understand current conditions, to assess the potential for morphological changes, and to support prioritisation of actions and selection of sustainable management strategies.

This report (D6.2 Part 1) describes the succession of logical stages required to implement the framework and its assessments as follows.

(1) Catchment-wide delineation and spatial characterization of the fluvial system. This phase provides a delineation, characterization and analysis of the river system in its current conditions, according to the framework developed in D2.1.

(2) Assessment of temporal changes and current conditions. This phase involves reconstructing the history and evolutionary trajectories of morphological changes and assessing river conditions in its present state.

(3) Assessment of scenario-based future trends. This phase is aimed to identify possible scenarios of hydromorphological modification.

(4) Identification of management actions. This last phase is aimed to identify possible hydromorphological restoration or management actions, and strongly interacts with the identification of restoration potential and strategies developed in REFORM WP5.

The methods and tools developed or revised in this Deliverable have relevance for hydromorphological assessment and monitoring aimed at implementing the WFD. Concerning the definition of WFD water bodies, the REFORM framework uses a more standard geomorphological terminology for the spatial units and the procedures recommended include a more comprehensive and explicitly process-based set of criteria. Application of the REFORM framework to delineate segments often generates boundaries that correspond to WFD water body boundaries, which can be further subdivided into ‘reaches’ using additional geomorphological criteria such as the classification of river typologies.

This Deliverable also suggests suitable methods for the evaluation of the different components of an overall ‘river condition assessment’, such as for hydrological assessment (IARI, IAHRIS), morphological assessment (MQI, Rivers-MImAS, SYRAH), and riparian vegetation assessment (RQI). Specifically, the Morphological Quality Index (MQI) has been extended and tested during the project and is the recommended method from REFORM for the assessment of morphological conditions.

Conclusions and recommendations

In order to characterise, assess, and monitor hydromorphological conditions of rivers, an overall analysis of different components (hydrology, morphology, riparian vegetation) is required. The analysis must be based on appropriate spatial and temporal scales.

For sustainable solutions to river management problems, it is crucial to develop understanding of the functioning of a river reach in the context of the character and changes in the spatial units (segment, landscape unit, catchment, biogeographical region) within which the reach is located.

Knowledge of past hydromorphological changes which have occurred at different spatial scales, their causes, and reconstruction of the river evolutionary trajectory in response to those changes is a fundamental component of the analysis.

We provide the following key recommendations for stakeholders:

• We recommend using two linked process-based approaches to achieve a comprehensive and synergic hydromorphological assessment: (i) a multi-scale, open-ended framework to develop an understanding of river reach hydromorphology; (ii) a more prescriptive approach based on the integration of more specific assessment tools.

• The delineation of WFD water body boundaries can be integrated into the REFORM framework at the segment scale, and then the water bodies can be further sub-divided into ‘reaches’ using additional geomorphological criteria such as the identification of river (morphological) types.

• The Morphological Quality Index (MQI) is recommended to assess river conditions, i.e. for analysing and interpreting critical problems and causes of alteration. The method should be implemented for the entire gradient of morphological conditions (not only for high status water bodies) for supporting interpretation of BQEs, and should be integrated with a characterization of the assemblage of geomorphic units (GUS) that determine the morphology at reach scale.

6.2 Methods to assess hydromorphology of rivers part I.pdf

Work packages:

Deliverables:

D6.2 Final report on methods, models, tools to assess the hydromorphology of rivers

Document type:

File status:

Final

Policy Brief:

Synthesis of interim results for practical application to support the compilation of the 2nd RBMPs

tom.buijse@deltares.nl — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 15:52:51 +0000

REFORM (Nov 2011 - Oct 2015) is targeted towards development of guidance and tools to make river restoration and mitigation measures more cost-effective and to support implementing the Water Framework Directive. Its final products will hence become available too late for the preparation of the 2^nd River Basin Management Plans (2015). That is why deliverable D6.1 makes interim results available at a time when they can still be used.

REFORM (REstoring rivers FOR effective catchment Management) is targeted towards development of guidance and tools to make river restoration and mitigation measures more cost-effective and to support the second and future River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) for implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The project runs from 1 November 2011 to 31 October 2015. Its final products will hence become available too late for the 2^nd RBMPs that need to be completed by 2015. That is why deliverable D6.1 has been defined as a means to make interim results available at a time when they can still be used for the preparation of the 2^nd RBMPs.

Accordingly, deliverable D6.1 provides a synthesis of interim results for practical application to support the compilation of the 2nd RBMPs. It synthesises the results of WP1 in particular. The interim results from work packages WP2 to WP5 are synthesised in a form which can be applied to support the compilation of the 2^nd RBMPs. The report also presents a strategy for making the information available to practitioners in an accessible way. It thus serves as a stepping stone between the scientific results from the work packages and the final information for practical use by a wider audience. This stepping stone will be used itself within the project to discuss the clarity and the pertinence of work package outcomes as well as the appropriate ways of presentation.

The input for deliverable D6.1 is provided by the following deliverables:

Deliverable D1.1: Review on eco-hydromorphological methods;
Deliverable D1.2: Review on effects of pressures on hydromorphological variables and ecologically relevant processes;
Deliverable D1.3: Review on ecological responses to hydromorphological degradation and restoration;
Deliverable D2.1: Multi-scale framework and indicators of hydromorphological processes and forms;
Deliverable D4.1: Field protocols and associated database;
Deliverable D5.1: Review of methodologies for benchmarking and setting end-points for restoration projects.

The strategy for making the information available to practitioners rests on the set-up and population of a wiki, i.e. a thematic and well-designed open-access web-based knowledge management system and the communication through the newsletter, and directly to the appropriate stakeholder groups such the CIS working groups, the ECRR network and relevant groups in social media. The WIKI is an effective tool for linking science to practice.

6.1 Synthesis of interim results.pdf

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Deliverables:

D6.1 Synthesis of interim results for practical application to support the compilation of the 2nd RBMPs