Scientific monitoring of immediate and long-term effects of river restoration projects in the Polish Carpathians

Relatively short time that passed since the onset of river restoration activities worldwide and a scarcity of monitored restoration projects cause that scientific evidence of changes in restored rivers is still meagre, particularly with respect to innovative restoration techniques and long-term effects of restoration activities. Restoration projects realized in the first half of the 2010s in three Polish Carpathian watercourses resulted in establishing of an erodible corridor in reaches of the Biala and the Raba rivers and installation of block ramps in the deeply incised channel of Krzczonowka Stream downstream of a lowered check dam. Environmental monitoring was conducted in the initial and final phases of the restoration projects and is to be repeated 5 years after their completion. This paper (i) introduces the area of the restoration projects, (ii) informs on their objectives and implementation, (iii) outlines the methodology of the environmental monitoring and of the analysis of immediate and long-term effectiveness of the projects in improving the ecological state of the watercourses and reducing flood hazard, and (iv) overviews papers presenting outcomes from the initial phase of the monitoring. The analysis of the monitoring data will increase knowledge on effects of the innovative, cost-effective restoration measures that could be widely used in the Carpathian context, and thus will be useful for changes in the management of degraded mountain rivers. (C) 2020 European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The scientific evidence of changes in restored rivers is still limited due to the relatively short time since the onset of global river restoration activities and a lack of monitored restoration projects. The restoration projects in three Polish Carpathian watercourses in the early 2010s utilized innovative techniques and environmental monitoring to improve the ecological state of the watercourses and reduce flood hazard, with plans for repeat monitoring in five years.