Why evaluations of the ecological outcomes of stream and river restoration have largely reported inconclusive or negative results has been the subject of much debate over the last decade or more. Understanding the reasons behind the lack of positive results is important for bettering future restoration efforts and setting realistic expectations for restoration outcomes. This thesis explores possible explanations for why researchers have failed to find clear and predictable biotic responses to stream restoration: recovery time has been too short, that restoration of habitat complexity is not clearly linked to instream biodiversity, that one monitored organism group is not representative of the entire community, that restoration effort was not intense enough to restore the potential habitat complexity of a system, and that reach-scale restoration done in the presence of catchment-scale degradation obscures restoration results. The overarching goal of this thesis is to study the holistic effect of reach-scale restoration of historic reach-scale simplification, due to timber floating in northern Swedish streams, thus avoiding the added pressure of catchment-scale degradation typically found at most restoration sites (e.g., non-point-source pollution and impervious cover). Using this model system, I was able to show that it took 25 years for riparian plant species richness at restored sites to increase above that of channelized sites. Furthermore, it was clear that restoration of these streams caused a large and rapid change in N-processing in the riparian zone and this alteration persists for at least 25 years. Additionally, multiple metrics of geomorphic complexity were needed to explain some of the more subtle responses of organism groups. Macroinvertebrates, diatoms, and macrophytes did not respond concordantly and cannot serve as surrogates or indicators for each other. I found that older best practice methods of restoration rarely restored the large-scale features needed to bring the sites up to their potential complexity because these elements were destroyed or removed from the system. Advanced restoration techniques used in more recent restorations added big boulders and instream wood and increased complexity to a level that elicited a biological response. By combining surveys of multiple metrics of structure, diversity of multiple organism groups, and process in this thesis I was able to get a holistic view of the effects of restoration of streams after timber floating. We now know that it takes at least 25 years for riparian plants and N-cycling to recover, we understand that multiple metrics of geomorphic complexity should be measured to be able to explain biotic responses, and that restored complexity should better match the potential complexity of the site in order to elicit a biological response. Finally, we know that multiple organism groups need to be assessed when evaluating the response of biodiversity to restoration.

What drives species diversity across landscapes is one of the most fundamental questions in ecology. Further, understanding the mechanisms underlying species diversity patterns is important not only for forming and challenging ecological theories but also essential for appropriate landscape management and effective nature conservation. This thesis focuses on patterns of vascular plant, moss and liverwort species richness and composition in relation to water flow in boreal-forest catchments, focusing mostly on riparian zones (RZs), that is terrestrial areas bordering streams and rivers. I addressed some of the most essential questions related to the ecology of riparian vegetation including the role of stream network position, groundwater (GW) flow paths, substrate availability, upland perturbations, and stream restoration. I also investigated how riparian soil processes and habitat properties relate to these factors in order to provide a holistic understanding of riparian dynamics. The results showed that the species richness and composition of riparian vascular plants, mosses and liverworts are strongly influenced by position along the stream network, GW discharge, presence of variable substrates in RZs, and by stream restoration. Generally, more species were found downstream in the network, at sites with inputs of upland GW, sites with high diversity of substrates (e.g., open mineral soil, rocks, stones, wood and bark), and along streams restored after channelization. This thesis also describes how riparian habitat properties responded to position in the landscape and human impacts, thus providing mechanistic links between plant species diversity and riparian processes across spatial scales. These ecological insights are further implemented into numerous recommendations for freshwater and upland management in boreal Sweden. Given that streams and rivers connect landscape elements both longitudinally and laterally I argue that management plans should be designed for entire catchments instead of individual river segments. Ignoring the connectivity of streams as well as the high connectivity of riparian areas to uplands via GW flows may result in failure of restoration, mitigation and/or protection actions. Further, during forestry operations more emphasis should be placed on GW discharge areas along streams and rivers, because they represent important ecological and biogeochemical hotspots in the landscape. The riparian buffers left along streams in boreal catchments affected by forestry are presently insufficiently wide and often uniform in width. This threatens the assemblages of species in GW discharge hotspots and the ecosystem services they provide. Overall, this thesis describes a holistic picture of riparian diversity patterns and riparian processes in boreal landscapes, acknowledges and elaborates on current ecological theories, presenting new patterns in biodiversity, and offers management guidelines.

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2016-01-05T12:09:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 8370454 bytes, checksum: 26479ee704fbe159e1994c81453039fa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-05T12:09:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 8370454 bytes, checksum: 26479ee704fbe159e1994c81453039fa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-10 / The negative impacts caused by the use of process and land use on the banks of rivers and floodplains have been deteriorating the water health conditions, the environment and effect on landscapes. In urban areas, in particular, it is observed the degradation of rivers and water quality and aquatic biota. The interest in restoring ecosystems of waterways, both in urban and rural areas, is expanding worldwide, especially in developed countries. Similarly, areas of occupation in the coastal zone, those which tend to larger and denser occupation, have been a main concern of many governments. Therefore, models of environmental assessment of rivers have been developed and refined to allow the diagnosis and the selection of river restoration actions. The German method, called Mapping and assessment methods for the structure of Waters, developed in Bavaria, is used to map the quality of watercourses structure as a measure of its ecological integrity and indicates whether it is capable of supporting the dynamic processes of its bed. For the coastal zone, the Orla project’s methodology, developed by the Ministry of Environment of Brazil, uses the landscape units as elements of analysis in terms of urban occupation and provides grants for landscape analysis beyond the river limits and may complement fluvial analysis. Both methodologies contribute to perform a broader diagnosis of the current situation of environmental degradation, and may indicate which stretches and landscape units would need intervention to seek restoration or rehabilitation of these areas. In this work, these models were used to map the quality of the riverbed structure concerning its morphology, including the dynamics of the main river and the dynamics of wetlands, and also the marginal areas of low Jaguaribe River in its bed in the municipalities of João Pessoa and Cabedelo, on the south coast of the state of Paraíba. The results showed stretches of the river ranging from a totally altered state to little changed, concerning the stretch and the side occupation of the river channel. The extended marginal areas were classified into three types A, B, C of the Orla project, showing conformity with the classification obtained from the river system. / Os impactos negativos causados pelo processo de uso e ocupação do solo nas margens e planície de inundação dos rios vêm deteriorando as condições de salubridade das águas, do ambiente e com repercussão nas paisagens. No meio urbano, em particular, se observa a degradação dos rios e da qualidade da água e da biota aquática. O interesse em restabelecer os ecossistemas dos cursos d’água, tanto nas áreas urbanas quanto na rural, está se expandindo em todo o mundo, especialmente nos países desenvolvidos. De forma semelhante, a ocupação de áreas na zona costeira, as que apresentam tendências de maiores e mais densas ocupações, tem sido objeto de preocupação de diversos governos. Assim, modelos para avaliação ambiental de rios têm sido desenvolvidos e aperfeiçoados para permitir o diagnóstico e a seleção de ações de restauração fluvial. O método alemão, denominado Mapping and assessment methods for the structure of Waters, desenvolvido na Bavária, é utilizado para o mapeamento da estrutura da qualidade dos cursos d’água como medida da sua integridade ecológica e indica se o mesmo é capaz de suportar os processos dinâmicos de seu leito. Para a zona costeira, a metodologia do projeto Orla, desenvolvida pelo Ministério do Meio Ambiente do Brasil, se utiliza das unidades de paisagem como elementos de análise em termos de ocupação urbana e oferece subsídios para a análise da paisagem além dos limites fluviais, podendo complementar a análise fluvial. Ambas as metodologias contribuem para se realizar um diagnóstico mais amplo da situação atual de degradação ambiental, e podem indicar em quais trechos e unidades paisagísticas haveria necessidade de intervenção buscando a restauração ou requalificação dessas áreas. Neste trabalho, foram utilizados esses modelos para o mapeamento da estrutura da qualidade do leito fluvial, referente a sua morfologia, compreendendo a dinâmica do rio principal e a dinâmica das várzeas, além das áreas marginais do baixo rio Jaguaribe em seu antigo leito nos municípios de João Pessoa e Cabedelo, na zona costeira Sul do estado da Paraíba. Os resultados apontaram trechos do rio variando do estado totalmente alterado a pouco alterado, segundo o trecho e a ocupação lateral da calha fluvial. As áreas marginais estendidas foram classificadas nas três tipologias A, B, C do projeto Orla, apresentando concordância com à classificação obtida do sistema fluvial.

A urbanização traz consigo diversos desafios, dentre eles, o manejo das águas, o qual se destaca por englobar aspectos de diversas áreas do conhecimento e demandar soluções multidisciplinares, o que nem sempre é fácil de alcançar. O presente estudo se dedicou à analise dos principais aspectos e desafios envolvidos no processo de requalificação de corpos d\'água em áreas urbanas. Discute-se a renaturalização, a revitalização e a recuperação, e suas dificuldades, como o controle efetivo das cargas poluidoras na bacia hidrográfica, o reestabelecimento das funções ecossistêmicas dos corpos d\'águas e a promoção da integração da população no processo a fim de garantir sua efetividade e durabilidade. Este estudo compreende a análise crítica das principais técnicas existentes de manejo da água no meio urbano; das metodologias de tratamento de canais atualmente empregadas; das novas técnicas de drenagem, consideradas sustentáveis; e das estruturas utilizadas para controle de cargas poluidoras. Para tanto as técnicas estudadas foram aplicadas em uma proposta de requalificação da bacia hidrográfica do córrego Jaguaré, situada na zona oeste do município de São Paulo, a fim de auxiliar estudos futuros no melhor entendimento dos processos envolvidos e na escolha da melhor técnica de manejo (renaturalização, revitalização ou recuperação) a ser empregada para distintos cenários. A bacia do córrego Jaguaré conta com uso do solo heterogêneo, possuindo desde áreas verdes bem preservadas, até remanescentes industriais e rodovias e, portanto, apresenta diversos problemas e usos conflituosos do espaço, o que garante a ela um campo fértil para estudos relativos ao manejo das águas. Para validar a proposta de requalificação foi realizada ainda uma consulta pública junto aos moradores da bacia a fim de compreender as demandas da sociedade. / Urbanization brings with it several challenges, among them water management that stands out because it involves aspects of several areas of knowledge and demands multidisciplinary solutions, which is not always easy to achieve. The present study was devoted to the analysis of the main aspects and challenges involved in the process of urban watercourses requalification. The restoration, revitalization and recovery, and their difficulties, such as the effective pollution control in the watershed, the reestablishment of the ecosystem functions of the watercourses and the population integration in order to ensure the process effectiveness and durability. This study includes the critical analysis of the main existing water management techniques, such as methodologies of channels treatment currently employed, sustainable drainage, and structures used for pollutant control. The techniques studied were applied in a proposal for the Jaguaré watershed requalification, located in the western zone of São Paulo city, in order to help future studies to better understand the processes involved. Besides that it helps to choose the best management techniques (Restoration, revitalization or recovery) to be used for different scenarios. The Jaguaré watershed has a heterogeneous land occupation, preserving green areas, residential use, industrial remnants, and highways. Therefore, it presents several problems and conflicting land uses, which ensures it is a fertile field for water management studies. In order to validate the requalification proposal, a public consultation was also held with the watershed residents, in order to understand the society\'s demands.

Ecosystem services, capturing the benefits and values of functioning ecosystems for human well-being, is a concept receiving increasing attention both in science and policy. This study investigates the utility of considering ecosystem service in the ecological restoration of a river affected by small-scale hydropower. While hydropower is a renewable energy source, it has impacts on the ecological status in water sheds and generates issues addressed e.g. by the EU Water Directive. To mitigate ecological impacts, and maintain hydroelectricity production that better correspond to the Water Directive, several restoration measures are carried out in river Billstaån, County of Jämtland, Sweden.   This study presents an ecosystem service perspective of the restoration process in river Billstaån linked to recommendations in terms of further interpretation, monitoring and communication of the assessment results. By applying evaluation of ecosystem services to the case of river Billstaån, it is examined to what extent ecosystem service descriptions can give support in monitoring and communication of the results of the ecological restoration efforts.   Ecosystem services were assessed for the restoration outcomes in river Billstaån using the two frameworks Corporate Ecosystem Service Review (ESR) and Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Assessment (TESSA), respectively. The ecosystem services deemed most important partly differed between the two frameworks due to different assessment perspectives. However, both ESR and TESSA pointed out ecosystem services connected to recreation and tourism as important, indicating a potential regarding recreational use of the area. Such socio-economic impacts of the restoration project was not included in the planning of the restoration, but if identified and utilized such “added benefits” might give opportunities for local rural development beyond the restoration work itself.   Contrasting the results from the ecosystem service assessment of river Billstaån towards the Swedish Environmental Objectives identified two direct and seven indirect connections. Through these connections the restoration project can be presented in relation to national goals. Indicating such connections can help in communicating the ecosystem service perspective. For future monitoring of project outcomes in river Billstaån, a set of potential indicators were identified using an ecosystem service approach, that can complement the planned monitoring of ecosystem functions. For future monitoring of ecosystem service development it is advisable to use a combination of indicators that reflect both the ecosystem function availability and the ecosystem service use. Three types of illustrations that can support different perspectives in future communication regarding ecosystem services in river Billstaån were identified in this study and termed system, overview and single service perspective. Example illustrations include a Causal Loop Diagram, a hot-spot map and a range of photos, respectively. The illustrations are deemed to present the assessment results in a more accessible way and can be adapted to a diversity of future communication settings. / <p>Betyg 2017-06-14</p>

This thesis deals with the hydroecological monitoring and river restoration of the Syrovinka watercourse in Hodonín district. In the framework of the hydroecological monitoring a river hydromorphological assessment was conducted as a part of assessing the ecological status of watercourse, to meet the requirement of the Water Framework Directive. Hydroecological monitoring was conducted using methodology HEM 2014, which is accepted as a national standard by the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic. Problematic reaches of watercourse were determined and for the selected reach a river restoration measures have been designed. Subsequently, an efficiency of river restoration was evaluated. The main benefits of designed river restoration are the restoration of ecological function and the support of natural water retention in floodplain.

This thesis deals with the hydroecological monitoring of the Sopřečský potok and possibilities of its improvement. The Sopřečský potok is located in the Pardubice Region in the Elbe River Basin. In the first phase of the work, hydroecological monitoring was carried out and then the hydromorphological state of the watercourse was evaluated. All procedures comply with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. On the basis of its evaluation and taking into account the delimitation of ÚSES elements, the sections on which the measures to improve the state of the watecourse were implemented were selected. The effect of the modifications on the hydromorphological state was again evaluated. In conclusion, there is a comparison and summary of the proposed modifications to the existing state of watercourse.

No description available.

No description available.

In addition to the hydromorphological pressure on the ecological conditions of free-flowing river courses, increasing water temperature is affecting the water bodies, particularly by changing freshwater community compositions. The low discharge of numerous European rivers in the dry and hot hydrological year 2022 proves this relevance. Therefore, ecological assessment tools such as habitat modeling should take these factors into account when assessing the quantity and quality of habitats. In this paper, the habitat modeling tool “Transient River Habitat Modeling for Macrozoobenthos” (TRiMM) is improved by incorporating a fuzzy logic approach and adding water temperature to the set of parameters determining habitat suitability for macrozoobenthos. Habitat-relevant parameters, including hydromorphological factors (depth, velocity, mineral and organic substrate) and a water quality factor (temperature), are combined in the habitat model so that it can more broadly characterize river physical conditions and their interactions with biological indicators. Habitat modeling employed the mentioned parameters to simulate suitability for the macrozoobenthos in a small river in central Saxony, Germany. Due to its deteriorated condition, this river was selected as a representative for thousands of kilometers of small rivers across the region, which have been restored. The model simulated the status quo of river conditions from spring to summer for three macrozoobenthos species (Ancylus fluviatilis, Ephemera danica and Gammarus fossarum). The results showed that the natural flow resulted in dynamic habitat suitability both spatially and temporally, which differs for each species. Remarkably, the five-parameter model (depth, velocity, temperature, mineral, and organic substrate) generally performed better compared to a similar model without temperature.