Restoration of Degraded Rivers: Challenges, Issues and Experiences (Nato Science Partnership Subseries: 2, 39)

In the continued quest for increased economic benefits from our water resources, numerous structures and operating policies for controlling the river flow have been built and implemented. These structures and associated operating policies can facilitate navigation; they can provide greater quantities of reliable water supplies to meet agricultural, industrial and municipal water demands; they can generate hydroelectric power and energy; and they can provide increased flood protection, recreation, and other benefits. Over the past half-century we have converted many of our rivers into engineered waterways. These straightened, often periodically dredged, engineered rivers are complete with dikes, reservoirs, weirs, and diversion canals. All this engineering has enhanced economic development. However, as rivers and their floodplains become stressed from the excessive use and misuse of their resources, their contribution to economic development can be threatened. Evidence of economic and ecological degradation, especially in relatively large river systems such as the Danube, the Mississippi, the Rhine, and the Volga, has increased our appreciation of beneficial roles natural aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems play in water quantity and quality management. We have recognized the need to pay more attention to letting nature help us regulate water quantity and quality rather than working against nature and its variabilities and uncertainties. Today there are efforts underway in many developed river basins to 'de­ engineer' or return these straightened and controlled rivers to a more natural state. Front Matter....Pages i-x Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Restoration of Degraded water Resource Systems: Issues, Opportunities, Challenges and Experiences....Pages 3-56 Restoration through Imagination in Planning and Management....Pages 57-81 Front Matter....Pages 83-83 Ecological Problems of River Systems Regulated by Reservoirs....Pages 85-98 A Conceptual Study on the Rehabilitation of the Lignite Mining Area South of Leipzig....Pages 99-110 The Restoration of Degraded River Basins: A Review of the Ave River Research Project....Pages 111-142 Institutional Aspects of River Basin Management in Russia: The Example of the Ob....Pages 143-152 Rehabilitation of the Tagus Estuary....Pages 153-162 The River Acheloos’ Diversion Project for Rehabilitation of Water Resources....Pages 163-171 Hydroecological Problems of Big River Basins: Origins and Possible Solutions....Pages 173-178 Problems of Large-Scale Basins of Russia....Pages 179-185 Environmental Consequences of Water Resource Development in California....Pages 187-209 River Restoration in European Lowland River Systems....Pages 211-227 Environmental Restoration of Surface and Groundwater in the Upper Tisza Basin....Pages 229-242 United States Water Resources Experience Related to European Water Management Concerns....Pages 243-253 Ili-Balkhash Basin: The State and Prospects of Nature Management....Pages 255-262 The Development Plan of the Transboundary Euphrates-Tigris Basin and Environmental Considerations....Pages 263-276 Siberian Rivers and Their Environmental Problems....Pages 277-282 Water Quality and Environmental Degradation in the Tom River Basin (Western Siberia)....Pages 283-292 Front Matter....Pages 293-293 Organization, Management and Financing of Environmental Rehabilitation Projects: Experiences in Eastern Germany....Pages 295-346 Computer-Supported Restoration of Rivers in Germany....Pages 347-356 Front Matter....Pages 293-293 A Decision Support System for Planning Environmental Flow Allocations....Pages 357-376 The Impact of Land Reclamation Upon the Landscapes of Large River Basins....Pages 377-382 Guidelines for Riverine Water Quality Rehabilitation and Management During Economic Transition: Institutions, Economics and Alternative Strategies....Pages 383-397 Integrated Groundwater Management for Open Pit Mining Regions: The Role of Sophisticated Numerical Tools for Interactive Monitoring, Predictive Modelling and Decision-Making....Pages 399-415 Computer-Based Support for Planning and Negotiation on Environmental Rehabilitation of Water Resource Systems....Pages 417-445 Water Resource Conflict Resolution Based on Interactive Tradeoffs Display....Pages 447-470 GIS-Aided Modelling of Groundwater Situations in Open Pit Mining Areas....Pages 471-479 Back Matter....Pages 481-484 There have been frequent, extensive efforts made over recent decades to develop and manage water resource systems to meet multiple purposes and objectives, especially for large rivers. Control of the spatial and temporal distribution of water in those rivers in order to meet more effectively a variety of economic in-stream and off-stream purposes and uses and increased point and non-point pollutant loadings has often reduced the health of the rivers' aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and decreased the rivers' floodplain and wetland areas. The result has been a loss in ecosystem biodiversity and reduced self-purification capacities and an increase in the magnitude of the peak flows - and economic damage - accompanying major floods. This book focuses on the central issue of how best to design, manage and operate water control facilities so as to meet ecological and environmental as well as economic objectives - objectives that in some ways may be in conflict with one another. Numerous case examples are described, covering the restoration needs and activities taking place in river basins in Central Asia, Eastern and Western Europe and North America. Methods of organising, planning, financing, managing and negotiating agreements associated with river rehabilitation activities are also presented.