ABSTRACT
In the last decades, especially after the new impetus given by the European Water Framework Directive and the Directive on the Assessment and Management of Flood Risks, several waterbodies were subjected to restoration measures to improve their ecological status and decreasing the flood risk at the same time. Re-engineering channels to reinstate a more natural form and the restoration of water and sediment fluxes can bring multiple benefits, which are achievable because natural rivers are ecosystems that maintain high biodiversity, while the inundation of the floodplains can attenuate flows. Despite numerous restoration projects realized across Europe, only a minor part of them were monitored for sufficient time and at a sufficient large scale in order to give valuable information about the projects outcomes. Moreover, where monitoring programmes of restored reaches are still active, little quantitative information are available to the public, in favor of more qualitative considerations. Comparing different restoration projects, it is evident that monitoring programmes result scarce and not even distributed across the European countries, especially with regards to hydromorphological quality elements. The scarcity of monitoring outcomes is generally related to the scarcity of post-projects funds. To overcome this problem, it is necessary to include a long-term monitoring programme in the project agenda, because more long-term outcomes are fundamental to evaluate the quality of the project at large scales, as well as the lessons learnt that can be applied to other river restoration works.
