LIFE project Denmark: Establishing a European Centre for River Restoration

Restoration initiatives are seen as being part of the means to satisfy the Water Framework Directive (WFD) requirements to achieve good status in all surface- and ground waters by 2015. While many projects have been undertaken in recent years in Europe, including those in Eastern Europe through the PHARE and TACIS programmes, the exchange of information and experiences between local authorities both on a national and an international level has proven to be inadequate. In some countries (Denmark, Germany and the UK) national information centres have been established, but experiences and achievements cannot easily be exchanged on a European level.

This LIFE project developed a European Centre for River Restoration to promote the restoration of rivers and riparian areas in Europe. The beneficiary was the Freshwater Department of the National Environmental Research Institute, Denmark, a research institution that forms part of the Danish Ministry of the Environment. The Freshwater Department set up the European Centre for Restoration of Rivers (ECRR) to generate cost-efficient benefits for the protection of biodiversity, flood defence and water quality. It was charged with developing a European network of national institutions and river restoration organisations from as many European countries as possible.

The ECRR brought together designated institutions from each EU Member State. Information on river restoration was distributed through newsletters, a website and scientific journals, and several online databases were established. Its main objectives were to:

• Encourage more river restoration;
• Achieve greater benefits from river restoration projects;
• Improve the cost-benefit ratio of river restoration works;
• Obtain greater biodiversity, and better water quality and flood management;
• Improve confidence in promoting and implementing river restoration;
• Bring about changes in policy and practice on river restoration to reflect the needs of the 21st Century, including having river restoration accepted as an integral part of sustainable water management;
• Improve European access to, and exchange of information from worldwide experience in river restoration.

Exchange of experiences between stakeholders involved in river restoration

The project established the centre and its network and databases, and organised an international conference. At the end of the project, the ECRR network consisted of 350 institutions and private individuals. In addition, national networks have also been established in the UK, Denmark, Romania, Russia, Italy, Spain and Norway. Further co-operation has also been established with several other organisations including the Netherlands Centre for River Studies, the European Centre for Nature Restoration, WWF, Ramsar, IUCN and EIONET. A guideline for establishing national networks was drawn up, and information about the ECRR activities and national and international activities on river restoration was made available on a new website. Databases on key institutions and contacts are also available online.

The secretariat has since been taken over by RIZA (the Netherlands National Institute for Integrated Water Management and Wastewater Treatment), and then by its Italian counterpart.  

For more information go to http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life

LIFE99 ENV/DK/000619

Title: European Centre for River Restoration

Beneficiary:

National Environmental Research Institute (NERI), Denmark