Status of and Perspectives on River Restoration in Europe: 310,000 Euros per Hectare of Restored River

Ewelina Szałkiewicz,Szymon Jusik,Mateusz Grygoruk

doi:10.3390/su10010129

Ewelina Szałkiewicz, Szymon Jusik + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su10010129

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Abstract

The purpose of the present research was to analyze the available data on river restoration projects in Europe. As the framework of our study, we conducted a structured international survey. We asked selected entities and experts from among those responsible for river restoration in European countries about the details and costs of European Union river restoration projects. We examined 119 river restoration projects that were implemented in Europe between 1989 and 2016; during the collection of data, some of the projects were still ongoing. Based upon the collected data we observed that the number of river restoration projects has been increasing since 1989, which expresses society’s growing interest in improving the quality of aquatic environments. We revealed that 56% of these European river restoration projects have been implemented by dedicated entities and stakeholders, not as part of any structured, larger-scale river restoration policy. This indicates that most European countries do not have integrated plans for river restoration. Our analysis showed that 52% of the projects analyzed have been designed and implemented without the participation of local stakeholders. It also showed that the budgets for river restoration projects did not differ significantly across various time horizons from 1989 to 2016. In our study, the average cost of restoring 1 ha of an European river was 310,000 euros (EUR). Considering these projects’ permanent assets and including their amortization, we calculated the average unit price of a river restoration’s value in terms of ecosystem meta-service to be 7757 EUR·ha−1·year−1.

Highlights

The development of societies is expressed through increasing indices for growth, the level of education and communication efficiency, as well as through a growing demand for a high-quality surrounding environment
We analyzed 119 river restoration project from 19 European Union (EU) countries, revealing that the number of river restoration projects has been increasing over the time frame analyzed (1989–2016)
We revealed that the majority of river restoration projects were not done in the framework of any larger policy, meaning that most are individual actions implemented by groups such as regional authorities

Summary

Introduction

The development of societies is expressed through increasing indices for growth, the level of education and communication efficiency, as well as through a growing demand for a high-quality surrounding environment. Many suspect the latter to be the main driver of environmental restoration [1,2,3]. As Suding stated, this situation and the increasing priorities on environmental issues provide exponentially more opportunities for the improvement of environmental quality and sustainable development than at any time before [1]. That is why there are specific groups of interest, including people with various objectives and profiles who are responsible for the design and implementation of environmental restoration projects [11]

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