Renaturalizing Riverbanks and Making Space for the River: Coupling Ecological Concerns and Risk Prevention Measures

Abstract

Since the approval of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) in the year 2000, rivers water management within the European Union needed to comply with the increasingly stringent requirements of ecological quality preservation and improvement. In this contribution interventions to rebalance the hydro-morphological dynamic asset of the river were discussed. Such interventions have been identified in the Fluvial Zonation and the Plan for the Hydrogeologic Configuration approved respectively in 1998 and 2001 as well as in the Program for the Management of Sediments carried out in the period 2006–2008. The latter program is based on careful studies and assessments of the unbalance of the sediment production, transport, and deposit mechanisms that have been induced by man-made activities with the aim to restore as much as possible the natural configuration of the riverbed and the riverbanks. The implementation of the plans and the program encounters requires a cultural change among professionals who must be convinced that structural defenses are not the only means to achieve a safer river and that renaturing where possible is preferable both from a hydraulic and an ecological point of view.