Description
REstoring rivers FOR effective catchment Management
Project duration: November 2011 - October 2015
Restoring river ecosystems in Europe: the REFORM project will provide tools to support cost-effective implementation of restoration measures and monitoring. REFORM is a 4-yr large integrated research project, grouping 25 partners from 14 countries, that addresses the challenges to reach the ecological objectives for rivers as required by the EU Water Framework Directive.
Many European rivers are regulated to support flood protection, navigation, freshwater supply or hydropower production. The ecological impacts of these hydromorphological modifications are poorly understood and the extent to which these impacts can be effectively reversed or mitigated lacks scientific rigour.
REFORM will improve existing tools and develop new ones to increase the success and cost-effectiveness of restoration measures and procedures to monitor the biological responses to hydromorphological changes with greater precision and sensitivity. One example of a new tool that will be delivered by REFORM is a river restoration WIKI. The first results will be timely available early 2013 to support the second and future River Basin Management Plans of the WFD as well as other European environmental directives.
