Abstract
ABSTRACTRiver corridors in urban environments provide areas of biodiversity which are important for both aesthetic and economic reasons. A physical habitat model, which was used to assess urban rivers in Birmingham, UK, was applied to pairs of selected reaches to represent differing levels of habitat diversity on three rivers. The results for different life‐stages of dace, roach and chub suggest that the worst physical habitat occurs in highly modified channels and at the highest flows. Four scenarios, which were designed to represent alterations in flow regime caused by changes in management practices, were calculated using the hydrological model. Changes in physical habitat created by changes to the flow regime were assessed using a consistent, replicable method. It was shown that an increase in runoff would have detrimental effects in all cases, and that less engineered sites would benefit more from flow reductions. The lack of a suitable habitat for fry is shown to be a limiting factor for fish at all sites.
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