Sustainable Riparian Zones. a Management Guide
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2 3 4 SUSTAINABLE RIPARIAN ZONES A Management Guide Edited By Daniel Arizpe Centre per a la Investigació i l’Experimentació Forestal (CIEF) Conselleria de Medi Ambient, Aigua, Urbanisme i Habitatge, Generalitat Valenciana Comarques del Pais Valencià 114-6, 46930 Quart de Poblet, Spain Ana Mendes Instituto Superior de Agronomia - Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Departamento de Engenharia Florestal Tapada da Ajuda 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal João. E. Rabaça LabOr - Laboratório de Ornitologia, Departamento de Biologia, Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas ICAM, Universidade de Évora, 7002-554 Évora, Portugal 5 © 2008 Generalitat Valenciana © Texts, drawings and photographs: The respective authors, artists and photographers. ISBN: 978-84-482-4967-0 Legal Deposit no.: V-3315-2009 Design and Layout Development: Essência - ROFFdesign (http://essencia.roff.pt) Printing: Gràfiques Vimar (http://www.vimar.es) English edition: copy editing by Mary Georgina Hardinge with additional collaboration of Carlos Tortosa and Dylan Cox. Front cover and separator page photographs: António Luis de Campos: Front cover, introduction, part 2, part 3 and part 5; Jean Roché: Part 1; Daniel Arizpe: Part 4; Ana Mendes: Appendices. 6 Foreword It is a great satisfaction to see the publication of environmental dimension of water, of the integrated the Manual “SUSTAINABLE RIPARIAN ZONES – A management of water and related terrestrial MANAGEMENT GUIDE”, a book that assembles an ecosystems, the precautionary principle and the important set of technical and scientific contributions source prevention and correction principle. to the sustainable management of riparian zones. Among the considered instruments, water resource This is certainly an issue of great opportunity and protection and improvement measures integrated timeliness. Its importance results from the fact that into management plans or adapted to specific riparian zones are of great value for the conservation purposes, call for actions such as the conservation of nature and biodiversity and also play a critical and rehabilitation of river systems and riparian role in the modern management of water resources, zones, the restoration and landscape enhancement which aims to protect these and their associated of watercourses and adjacent zones, the conservation ecosystems. Both aspects represent priorities of major and rehabilitation measures of wetlands and any relevance in the scope of environmental policy. other actions that aim at fulfilling the environmental goals associated with the good condition and good The diversity of subjects found in the book and the potential of water bodies. in-depth treatment they are given, certify to the high scientific skill of the authors and contribute to the For all those purposes, plus the great underlying goal great quality and usefulness of this Manual. Currently, of achieving good ecological quality, the contents of the rehabilitation of riparian systems constitutes an this Manual are extremely relevant. It will certainly important step towards reaching ecological quality in be useful in supporting innovative, demanding and water bodies, a challenge that we have to face, in the sustainable management practices. It will constitute European context, owing to the application of the an important working tool for institutions operating Water Framework Directive (WFD, Directive 2000/60/ at local and regional levels that are engaged in EC), transposed to the Portuguese legislation by the actions and tasks aiming to give tangible expression Water Law (Law no. 58/2005, 29 December 2005). to the guidelines contained in the existing legal framework. Analyzing the WFD and the Water Law demonstrates the great importance laid on the subject of the I would like to express my appreciation to the authors ecological quality of the water and aquatic and and editors of this book which is, undoubtedly, riparian ecosystems. One clear goal is “… to improve an important step towards a global, integrated the protection of aquatic ecosystems, and terrestrial environmental management of river systems, ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on innovative and proposes to allow us to find the right them, in what its water needs are concerned”. answers to the important challenges that we face now and in the near future. Among the principles considered in the Water Law, we emphasize, among others, the principle of the Prof. Dr. Francisco Nunes Correia Minister for Environment, Spatial Planning and Regional Development of Portugal 7 Preface The past hundred years have seen unprecedented this knowledge can be harnessed to manage these population growth and the intensification and ecosystems appropriately, particularly in specific increasing efficiency of the technology that humans function-restoration actions. Three important use in the course of their activities, in industry, aspects marked the project: commerce, building, and exploring for and extracting raw materials and biological resources. This growth a) a cross-disciplinary team that brought together has increased exponentially in the last thirty years, to skills and sensitivities from different scientific the point where the web of human interactions and fields, including geography, ornithology, botany, of intervention in ecosystems is now on a global scale. ecology, forestry engineering and genetics, among It is estimated that in the next 25 years the water others, requirements for the growing population will exceed the availability of this natural resource. In regions b) the highly topical and urgent nature of the subject such as the Mediterranean, where access to water matter, in view of the management and restoration is uneven in space and time, the need to establish requirements of the Water Framework Directive’s a pattern of human growth that is sustainable and environmental objectives, and conserves this resource and the aquatic ecosystems associated with it is evident. c) development and application of the knowledge acquired from the river corridors of various The increasing use of water and land are having steadily Mediterranean countries (Portugal, France, Spain more obvious effects on river ecosystems, including and Greece) which have been intervening in and modification of the river’s original longitudinal altering riparian gallery forests for millennia and transverse profiles, profound distortion of the despite these being unique ecosystems in the natural runoff system, alterations in water quality, landscape of many valleys, particularly in summer. alterations in the type and quantity of the energy and food sources (organic matter and nutrients) that The enormous effort made by all the partners in the reach the ecosystem and alterations due to biological project in unreservedly cooperating and making their interactions with exotic species. The environmental information and contacts available has contributed aspect of river management, which initially centred significantly to the quality of this guide. The warmth, on water quality and species protection, has now closeness and enthusiasm with which all the authors been succeeded by a holistic view of conservation shared their knowledge are reflected in the contents based on maintaining fluvial processes and functions of this guide. May I just say that it has been a pleasure and on the integrity or ‘health’ of the river ecosystem. to be part of this team. The operational objective is to return disturbed ecosystems to an ecological status approaching that The editorial leadership of this project has involved which existed before the human disturbances took a tremendous effort on the part of CIEF, the Higher place. The Water Framework Directive enshrined this Institute of Agronomy and the University of Evora new view of water ecosystem quality in law and set to combine the learning and experience of different dates for achieving good ecological status. Integrated universities, research centres, conservation and management and restoration of aquatic ecosystems regional development authorities and agencies. will be one of the major action areas in the future Despite the exertion, we considered that this was the management of water resources. correct way to go about conserving and improving our ecosystems. The EU InterregIIIC-South project “RIPIDURABLE, Sustainable Management of Riparian Woods” While by no means exhausting the need for more ran from 2005 to 2008. It studied the ecology and better information on Mediterranean riparian and dynamics of river corridors, including their galleries and management and recovery methods, hydrophysical and biological components, and how the information collected during the RIPIDURABLE 8 project, and other projects in similar subject areas, The result is an educational framework which we nonetheless constitutes a systematic, structured trust will be useful to everyone who deals in any way body of knowledge, providing the basis for this with river ecosystem management. Management Guide. The RIPIDURABLE members have not been alone in this, as contributions have Maria Teresa Ferreira also been made by other researchers involved in river restoration and upgrading projects, bringing different Professor, PhD, Habil. Higher Institute of Agronomy, perspectives on the ecosystem and its management. Technical University of Lisbon 9 Contributors Maria Helena Almeida Pedro Brufao Curiel Instituto Superior de Agronomia / Universidade Área jurídica de AEMS-Ríos con Vida / Técnica de Lisboa, Departamento de Engenharia Facultad de