Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
5 years ago

Influence of technical maintenance measures on ecological status of agricultural lowland rivers – Systematic review and implications for river management

Influence of technical maintenance measures on ecological status of agricultural lowland rivers – Systematic review and implications for river management
Intensification of agriculture and ongoing urban sprawl exacerbate pressures on rivers. Small rivers in agricultural landscapes are especially exposed to excessive technical actions implemented in order to allow for harvesting river water for irrigation, draining agricultural water and receiving sewage. Regular dredging and macrophyte removal strongly interfere with the global need for preserving river biodiversity that allows agricultural lowland rivers to remain refuges for a variety of species, and—accordingly—to keep water bodies resilient for the benefit of society. In order to provide a comprehensive look at the influence of agricultural lowland river management on the ecological status of these water bodies, we conducted a literature review and a meta-analysis. For the structured literature review we selected 203 papers reflecting on the response of aquatic ecosystems to dredging and macrophyte management actions. The database of scientific contributions developed for our study consists of papers written by the authors from 33 countries (first authorship) addressing dredging, macrophyte removal, status of fish and macroinvertebrates as well as the general ecological status of lowland agricultural rivers. We revealed that 96% of the analyzed papers indicated unilateral, negative responses of aquatic ecosystems, particularly macroinvertebrates, ichthyofauna and macrophyte composition, to maintenance measures. We revealed that studies conducted in the European Union on the ecological status of rivers appeared to significantly increase in quantity after the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. Finally, we concluded that day-to-day management of lowland agricultural rivers requires revision in terms of compliance with environmental conservation requirements and the recurrent implementation of technical measures for river maintenance.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S0048969718302778

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.