PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The need to restore rivers and floodplains has been increasingly acknowledged by the EU in recent years. The EU 5th Environment Action Programme places high priority on restoring biodiversity. The EU Framework Directive on Water aims to achieve good status in all surface waters by 2011. River restoration is widely accepted as an effective way of alleviating both water quality and flooding problems whilst at the same time leading to improvements to degraded aquatic systems, their biodiversity and amenity value. During the last 10-20 years, many river restoration projects have been undertaken. In Europe as a whole millions of euro are spent per year on river restoration and the EU supports many restoration schemes in Eastern Europe through the PHARE and TACIS programmes. However, the exchange of information and experiences between local authorities both on a national and an international level is inadequate. In some countries (Denmark, Germany and the UK) national information centres have been established but on a European level there is a huge information gap and experiences and achievements cannot be easily exchanged.
OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the project was to develop a European Centre for River Restoration. The aim of the Centre is to enhance restoration of rivers and riparian areas in Europe following the ideas of the Water Framework Directive by providing information and exchange of knowledge and experiences. This is expected to result in benefits for the protection of biodiversity, flood defence and water quality in a cost efficient way. The ECRR will work through the development of a European Network of relevant national institutions and persons working with river restoration. The network should include members from as many European countries as possible. One institution in each country will be appointed as a member state representative having the prime contact to the ECRR at the national level. However, anybody wishing to contact the ECRR or other participating institutions directly will be encouraged to do so. The Centre will disseminate information on river restoration through newsletters, the Internet and scientific journals and a number of databases relevant to river restoration will be established, e.g. database on projects, persons and institutions. The databases will be published on the Internet and will be accessible for all interested parties. The ECRR aims to establish worldwide contacts with experience in the field of river restoration. This will increase the cost effectiveness of river restoration in Europe and demonstrate clear benefits for ecological quality. The Centre will ensure that knowledge and experiences, good or bad, will be available for future projects to enable planners of restoration projects to use practicable experiences and to avoid unnecessary mistakes, and thereby ensure best value for money.
RESULTS
The project has worked on two main tasks: 1. Establishing of network, homepage and databases At the end of the LIFE project 350 Institutions and individuals participated in the ECRR network, including government, NGOs and private organisations. National networks have been established in UK, Denmark, Romania, Russia, Italy, Spain and Norway. Further co-operation has been established with a number of other organisations, e.g. Netherlands centre for River studies, European Centre for Nature Restoration, WWF, Ramsar, IUCN and EIONET. A guideline for establishing the national networks has been elaborated. An internet site has been established with the URL: www.ECRR.org. It includes information about the ECRR activities, as well as links to the national networks, information on national and international activities in relation to river restoration etc. Databases on key institutions and contacts are being prepared in a version for the Internet. The web site includes the addresses of contacts and institutions. 2. International conference A five-day international conference with the title “River restoration 2000- Practical approaches” was conducted in Wageningen, The Netherlands from 15-19 May 2000. A total of 103 persons participated in the conference, representing 24 European and 4 non-European countries. The conference proceedings are available in a hard-copy version as well as a PDF version, which can be downloaded from the web site. The conclusions from the conference have been processed, and are available in the Final Technical report of the project. Finally, an inquiry was conducted a year after the event, to evaluate the extent of contacts established at the conference. . A follow-up ex-post evaluation, carried out by the LIFE external monitoring team in May 2004, showed the results have lasted beyond the close of the project, as the network is still operating and has been strengthened. The secretariat has been taken over by RIZA (the Netherlands National Institute for Integrated Water Management and Wastewater Treatment), which has ensured financing until the end of 2005, after which its Italian counterpart has committed to continue the network. In this way it is estimated, that the network is ensured for the next five to ten years. Activities include the website, the newsletter and conferences. For example, ECRR, RIZA and Croatian Water hosted the 3rd International Conference on River Restoration – “River Restoration 2004:- Principles, processes & practices” held on 17-21 May 2004 in Zagreb, Croatia. For more information, visit the project website at: www.ecrr.org/ The project has worked on two main tasks: 1. Establishing of network, homepage and databases At the end of the LIFE project 350 Institutions and individuals participated in the ECRR network, including government, NGOs and private organisations. National networks have been established in UK, Denmark, Romania, Russia, Italy, Spain and Norway. Further co-operation has been established with a number of other organisations, e.g. Netherlands centre for River studies, European Centre for Nature Restoration, WWF, Ramsar, IUCN and EIONET. A guideline for establishing the national networks has been elaborated. An internet site has been established with the URL: www.ECRR.org. It includes information about the ECRR activities, as well as links to the national networks, information on national and international activities in relation to river restoration etc. Databases on key institutions and contacts are being prepared in a version for the Internet. The web site includes the addresses of contacts and institutions. 2. International conference A five-day international conference with the title “River restoration 2000- Practical approaches” was conducted in Wageningen, The Netherlands from 15-19 May 2000. A total of 103 persons participated in the conference, representing 24 European and 4 non-European countries. The conference proceedings are available in a hard-copy version as well as a PDF version, which can be downloaded from the web site. The conclusions from the conference have been processed, and are available in the Final Technical report of the project. Finally, an inquiry was conducted a year after the event, to evaluate the extent of contacts established at the conference. . A follow-up ex-post evaluation, carried out by the LIFE external monitoring team in May 2004, showed the results have lasted beyond the close of the project, as the network is still operating and has been strengthened. The secretariat has been taken over by RIZA (the Netherlands National Institute for Integrated Water Management and Wastewater Treatment), which has ensured financing until the end of 2005, after which its Italian counterpart has committed to continue the network. In this way it is estimated, that the network is ensured for the next five to ten years. Activities include the website, the newsletter and conferences. For example, ECRR, RIZA and Croatian Water hosted the 3rd International Conference on River Restoration – “River Restoration 2004:- Principles, processes & practices” held on 17-21 May 2004 in Zagreb, Croatia. For more information, visit the project website at: www.ecrr.org/
