Les restaurations de rivières sur Internet: premier bilan

Abstract

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) set the "good ecological status" of rivers as an objective to be reached before 2015. Monitoring, evaluation and feedback are therefore necessary. This paper highlights results from a first Internet French census which identified 480 initiatives declared as restoration actions. Results show that: 1. The definition of restoration is as yet neither clear nor univocal. Policies and competent stakeholders do not suffice to produce effective ecological restoration. Nineteenth century hydraulic engineering approaches are still being implemented. In many cases, objectives focus on security and free flow. There are confusions between river restoration, maintenance and management; 2. Geographic differences about quantity and quality of restoration are obvious but are not fully understood; 3. Inversely, restoration conceptions and practices show little change over the period analysed in the study (1985-2009); 4. Limitations in river restoration assessment are highlighted. There is no feedback on ecological and social gains in most actions. On the Internet, actions have priority over restoration results; 5. The Internet promotes exchanges and work on action and communication strategies in river restoration issues. As such it is particularly valuable in the operational and scientific fields where data sharing is an important factor. © 2011 NSS-Dialogues, EDP Sciences.