Physical habitat assessment
Physical habitat assessment
Type
Hydromorphological assessment methods
Rivertypes
Related Pressures
- Artificial barriers downstream from the site
- Artificial barriers upstream from the site
- Alteration of instream habitat
- Embankments, levees or dikes
- Loss of vertical connectivity
- Impoundment
- Alteration of riparian vegetation
- Channelisation / cross section alteration
- Other pressures
Related Measures
- No measures apply to this tool.
Related Hymo quality elements
- River continuity (Class: River continuity)
- Structure and substrate of the river bed (Class: Morphological conditions)
- Structure of the riparian zone (Class: Morphological conditions)
Related Biological quality elements
- No Biological Quality Elements apply to this tool.
Related Ecosystem goods and services
- No Ecosystem goods and services apply to this tool.
Useful references
Other relevant information
Physical habitat assessment methods aim to identify, survey and assess physical habitats and/or the overall functioning and conditions of rivers and streams. They are mainly applied at a local/reach scale, consider all the spatial components of a river corridor (channel, riparian area and floodplain), and assess the hydromorphological state at present time. We reviewed 72 methods belonging to this broad category (39 for European countries and 33 for non-European countries).
Methods of physical habitat assessment aim to characterize the range of physical habitats, heterogeneity and structure of ecosystems. These methods have often a great ecological relevance. The main limitation is that these methods are not suitable to understand physical processes and causes of river alterations, because of a series of reasons, including the scale of investigation (too small), the survey resolution (too much accurate), the temporal scale (not taken into account), the variability of river systems (not covered).
