Launch of the online forum on the REFORM “Stakeholder Workshop on River Restoration to Support Effective Catchment Management”

Welcome to the online forum on the REFORM “Stakeholder Workshop on River Restoration to Support Effective Catchment Management” (26–27 February 2013, Brussels).

This space was created for stakeholders interested in the workshop to submit their own key questions and concerns on impacts of hydromorphological modifications and river restoration for their inclusion in the event discussions.

This first post introduces this online forum and the main topics proposed for discussion during the REFORM Stakeholder Workshop.

The online forum on the REFORM Stakeholder Workshop

The online forum aims to expand the capacity of communication between the workshop organisers and invitees and to spark an initial exchange that can be expanded during the workshop. It is built as a moderated discussion table where short posts written by the organising team will be published for all users to read and discuss upon. Comments can be formulated as observations to the main post or as replies to other comments, therefore allowing for a direct exchange of insights between all participants. No login details are required.

Main workshop topics

The workshop is planned as an interactive event with plenary and breakout sessions. The workshop will include presentations of the following:

  • An overview of the initial outcomes of REFORM to support the drafting of the 2nd River Basin Management Plans
  • Feedback on assessment methods and measures for river restoration in the 1st River Basin Management Plans
  • Methods for understanding the root causes of degradation and specifying the expected outcome of restoration
  • Reporting on tools for assessing the effectiveness of restoration for river basin planning considering project scale and catchment status
  • Discussion of a European multi-scale ecohydromorphological assessment framework (prioritisation of assessments in different scales)
  • Knowledge sharing on hydromorphological degradation and restoration 
  • Dissemination of information about related European research projects and activities and their relationship to REFORM

The workshop will include breakout sessions for interactive discussion on 26 February (see draft programme at http://reformrivers.eu/events/stakeholder-workshop/programme).

The 1st round of breakout sessions (3 parallel groups) will concentrate on the following:

  • Highland/midland river systems
  • Lowland river systems
  • Mediterranean river systems

Mediterranean rivers are a separate group to give them ample attention and due to the different flow regimes.

The goal is to allow for discussion among participants who share similar problems and potential solutions, in order to have more profound and to-the-point discussions. The discussions should link to the REFORM ecohydromorphological assessment framework: Does such a framework help to find effective solutions?

The 2nd round of breakout sessions (3 parallel groups) will concentrate on the following:

  • Unraveling the impact of hydromorphological pressures in multiple-pressure settings
  • Designing programmes of measures
  • Dealing with heavily modified water bodies

In this setting, one group will deal with cause-effect issues (DPSIR in multistressor environments), another group will deal with scaling issues / programmes of measures for river basins and the last group will deal with target setting in highly modified environments (HMWBs).

The breakout sessions will address REFORM’s outputs and plans for the next stages of the project and also reflect on relevant activities in the Member States and other European countries.

Taking the topics above as a reference, we kindly ask you to share your relevant opinions, specific interests, and to point out other issues you think should not be missing in the discussions by 25 January 2013.

The value of this forum depends on how much you exploit it, so please feel free to participate actively!