Improve/Create water storage
Contents
- 1 Improve/Create water storage
- 1.1 General description
- 1.2 Applicability
- 1.3 Expected effect of measure on (including literature citations):
- 1.4 Temporal and spatial response
- 1.5 Pressures that can be addressed by this measure
- 1.6 Cost-efficiency
- 1.7 Case studies where this measure has been applied
- 1.8 Useful references
- 1.9 Other relevant information
Improve/Create water storage
Category 01. Water flow quantity improvement
General description
Water flow and the flow regime can be altered by different factors such as changes in land cover, soil structure and compacting, loss of floodplains and wetlands, and stormwater runoff from urban areas. Loss of water retention combined with accelerated runoff typically increases the frequency and magnitude of flood peaks and reduces the availability of water to streams during low flow (base flow) periods (Saldi-Caromile et al., 2004).
Preferably, a more natural flow regime can be restored by increaseing water infiltration and retention at the catchment scale by e.g. changes in land cover and floodplain restoration (see measure water retention) since this addresses both, increaed peak flows and reduced base flows. An alternative local end-of-pipe solution to reduce peak flows caused by stormwater runoff are stormwater rention and detention basins, which are of special importance for small rivers where single effluents may already cause massive erosion and affect water quality (please note: polders are not covered here since they are mainly used for flood protection and not for river restoration).
Applicability
Stormwater management
Stormwater reuse schemes are an effective way to reduce urban runoff volume. However, it is important to harvest only the larger flows than those occurring before the catchment was developed, to ensure that environmental flows are maintained in receiving waterways.
Expected effect of measure on (including literature citations):
- HYMO (general and specified per HYMO element)
- physico � chemical parameters
- Biota (general and specified per Biological quality elements)
Temporal and spatial response
Pressures that can be addressed by this measure
Cost-efficiency
Case studies where this measure has been applied
- Regge Velderberg
- Uilenkamp - Meander reconnection
- Sweden- Restoration of the Freshwater Pearl Mussel and its habitats (LIFE04/NAT/SE/000231)
- Polder Ingelheim – Restoring former floodplains (INTERREG Sustainable Development of Floodplains)
- Bemmelse Waard – Restoring former floodplains (INTERREG Sustainable Development of Floodplains)
- Hondsbroeksche Pleij – Restoring former floodplains (INTERREG Sustainable Development of Floodplains)
- Narew river restoration project
- Warta Middle River Valley
