Restoration of rivers and floodplains - Restoration Ecology - page 156

projects located in the headwaters, middle and delta
reaches (Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania).
The second forms a part of the Danube Carpathian
Programme and involves the countries of the lower
Danube. Initiatives such as these and the work of the
Rhine Commission on rivers with vast catchment
areas and physical and national barriers illustrate the
importance placed by government and environ-
mental NGOs on the concept of river and floodplain
restoration. Furthermore, the Danube Delta Biosphere
Reserve Authority (DDBRA) and the Danube Delta
National Institute for Research and Development
(DDNI) have jointly commenced a polder restoration
programme. In this project abandoned or inefficiently
managed fishing and agricultural polders were
identified for potential restoration and in 1994 the first
polder, Babina (2100 ha), was restored by re-wetting.
The programme did not stand still, with polders re-
wetted at Cernovca, Popina and Fortuna in 1996, 2000
and 2001 respectively.

grappling with over-abstraction issues for irrigation
and increased urbanization, especially in southern
areas. This has gone hand in hand with continued
building of major dams and an increase in pollutants,
both of which have been detrimental to the eco-
logical status of many Spanish rivers. In comparison,
the Netherlands already have a structure of gov-
ernment policies and subsidies in place, aimed at
putting river restoration high on the agenda. Many
river-restoration centres throughout Europe are now
promoting the importance of rivers and floodplains to
support ecological diversity and sustainable options for
flood management. To date, the UK, Italy, Denmark,
the Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Romania and Russia
have centres, with an overarching European Centre for
River Restoration. Furthermore, the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF) project Living Rivers for Europe is also
championing the idea of restoring rivers and wetlands
across Europe. This project is working to protect and
restore over 65 partnership river projects within 25
European countries.
In the UK there is growing acceptance that any flood-
control measure should ensure that there is no net loss
of biodiversity and that wherever possible environ-
mental enhancement should be promoted; to this end
the government (DEFRA 2002) has published guidance
on the environmental appraisal of flood defence to help
ensure that the implications for flood prevention and
management are fully considered in decision making.
Such schemes are in their infancy yet as many exist-
ing flood-defence schemes will soon no longer be viable
to maintain on economic grounds alone, more eco-
logically friendly options are likely to be considered
more seriously as sustainable, long-term and cost-
effective. Developments in urban landscape planning
and design, inclusion of sustainable urban drainage
systems (SUDS) in national and local authority
planning guidance and better integration between
engineers, ecologists, landscape architects, etc. to
solve old problems, all add to a wide knowledge base
readily available through Europe-wide collaborations.
Inevitably, any new ideas that are put into practice
will be subject to a degree of risk and uncertainty.
Whereas it is possible to mitigate against this through
rigorous scientific analysis, the very nature of a dyn-
amic living system means that exact outcomes cannot
always be predicted and a certain amount of flexib-
ility is needed to promote future river restoration and

11.6 Perspectives

Although the projects covered here are forward-
thinking and have resulted in examples of best-
practice river restoration, not all European countries
are at present in a position to implement such ideas.
Nonetheless, many are already accepting that natural
river systems are part of our future inheritance. In cent-
ral and eastern Europe water quality remains the main
problem but there is little or no money for improve-
ment. In the Russian Federation, for example, 60%
of existing sewage-treatment works are overloaded
and 40% need repair. This has serious implications for
contaminated land, and most fish such as sea trout
( S. trutta ), salmon ( S. salar ) and sturgeon ( Acipenser
sturio ) are virtually extinct. Israel has experienced sim-
ilar problems with sewage outfall, a problem that it
shares with neighbouring Palestine. Despite serious
political difficulties a collaborative initiative has
begun that addresses the pollution issue, recognizing
that improvements will be of benefit for all. This has
resulted in the Alexander River Restoration Project
(Amos Brandeis, Israel, personal communication).
The acceptance that river restoration is important
remains a divisive issue among EU member states.
Spain has a Restoration Centre, but the country is still