Restoring Aquatic Ecosystems

Within sectors requiring restoration, the activities created to recover the ecological balance and to recreate the affected areas to follow a system that becomes autonomous

Natural rivers and their floodplains are among the most complex and diverse ecosystems in the world. Rivers have been used for hundreds of years for food, water, irrigation, electricity generation, transport, discharge of pollutants, tourism and recreation. The problem is that, historically, these activities have been accomplished without properly considering ecosystems’ environmental and conservation features.

Rivers and their adjacent wetlands have the following natural features:

1. Habitat for fish, which offers optimal conditions for their reproduction;
2. Habitat for birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and various invertebrate fauna;
3. Water storage and sediment retention;
4. Water self-purification by storing and recycling nutrients and by transforming organic and inorganic pollutants;
5. Biodiversity – hardwood floodplain forests are highly productive;

Economic and social benefits: water source, transportation, building materials, eco-tourism, recreation and education.
When restoring rivers, the starting point is represented by a precise knowledge of all abiotic and biotic components of the area, such as climate conditions, hydrological regime, knowledge about silt and substratum structure, flora and fauna, intensity of erosion processes, water and sediment chemistry, etc. These components must be taken into account when proposing the ecotechnical solutions described below.

The problem of watercourse ecological recovery is a matter of public interest and water management. These issues and their resultant degradation are a byproduct of human impact caused by factors that include industrialization, urbanization, livestock and agricultural development, exploitation of materials in riverbeds, regulation and embankment works. Within sectors requiring restoration, the activities created to recover the ecological balance and to recreate the affected areas will follow a system that becomes autonomous.

Ecological recovery refers to both the water itself and its surrounding areas, such as watercourse banks, floodable plains, etc., which are of major importance in the development of flora and fauna. The process of ecological restoration and recovery consists of the development of natural or man-driven processes aimed at eliminating the negative consequences of regressive ecological processes (worsening structural and functional ecosystem conditions as a byproduct of negative, natural or anthropogenic impacts) and also of ecosystem recovery now degraded.

Source: livebetter

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Taxonomy

• Ecosystem Management
• River Restoration