Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened in the world, while providing numerous essential ecosystem services (ES) to humans. Despite their importance, research on freshwater ecosystem services is limited. Here, we examine how freshwater studies could help to advance ES research and vice versa. We summarize major knowledge gaps and suggest solutions focusing on science and policy in Europe. We found several features that are unique to freshwater ecosystems, but often disregarded in ES assessments. Insufficient transfer of knowledge towards stakeholders is also problematic. Knowledge transfer and implementation seems to be less effective towards South-east Europe. Focusing on the strengths of freshwater research regarding connectivity, across borders, involving multiple actors can help to improve ES research towards a more dynamic, landscape-level approach, which we believe can boost the implementation of the ES concept in freshwater policies. Bridging these gaps can contribute to achieve the ambitious targets of the EU’s Green Deal.

The management of rivers and floodplains is subject to multiple legal frameworks. For this reason, methods that allow a comparison of different management options are needed. Here, we apply both a literature and an expert-based approach to present an utilisable and transparent matrix approach for Central Europe, linking an array of 17 management measures with the provision of 23 ecosystem services (ESSs). In the overall matrix, 44% of the links were found to be positive or highly positive and 11% were negative or highly negative, while the other links were characterised as ambiguous or as having no effect. Overall, the effect spectra of management measures on various ESSs often indicated reduced provisioning ESSs, in particular those related to agriculture, while regulating and cultural ESSs have increased. Habitat restoration, floodplain restoration and flood risk reduction on agricultural land were the management measures that showed the most positive effects on ESSs, followed by dyke relocation. Besides the evaluation of such measures, this comprehensive approach helped to reveal knowledge gaps regarding the effects of management measures on the ESSs dealing with nutrient retention, and cultural ESSs. The matrix allows an integrative evaluation of the multifunctionality and efficiency of common management measures. ARTICLE HISTORY

Rivers and floodplains provide many regulating, provisioning and cultural ecosystem services (ES) such as flood risk regulation, crop production or recreation. Intensive use of resources such as hydropower production, construction of detention basins and intensive agriculture substantially change ecosystems and may affect their capacity to provide ES. Legal frameworks such as the European Water Framework Directive, Bird and Habitats Directive and Floods Directive already address various uses and interests. However, management is still sectoral and often potential synergies or trade‐offs between sectors are not considered. The ES concept could support a joint and holistic evaluation of impacts and proactively suggest advantageous options. The river ecosystem service index (RESI) method evaluates the capacity of floodplains to provide ES by using a standardized five‐point scale for 1 km‐floodplain segments based on available spatial data. This scaling allows consistent scoring of all ES and their integration into a single index. The aim of this article is to assess ES impacts of different flood prevention scenarios on a 75 km section of the Danube river corridor in Germany. The RESI method was applied to evaluate scenario effects on 13 ES with the standardized five‐point scale. Synergies and trade‐offs were identified as well as ES bundles and dependencies on land use and connectivity. The ratio of actual and former floodplain has the strongest influence on the total ES provision: the higher the percentage and area of an active floodplain, the higher the sum of ES. The RESI method proved useful to support decision‐making in regional planning.

River floodplains provide a large number of ecosystem services (ESSs) for human societies. However, human manipulations of rivers and floodplains have led to the loss of many ESSs, including the provision of habitats for typical floodplain flora and fauna. To quantify such losses, we present a new index, which incorporates the functional and structural quality of riverine and alluvial habitats and their communities. The assessment is based on publicly available biotic and abiotic data at a local scale (e.g., habitat type mapping, species data). The new evaluation method consists of three steps: First, an evaluation at habitat type level is done by using well-established assessment criteria (e.g., groundwater dependence, legal protection status, regenerability). Secondly, the individual habitats are assessed based on specific quality characteristics (e.g., presence of protected birds or backwater influence). Finally, these values are aggregated within 1-km floodplain compartments weighted by their spatial expansion. The index uses a five-step value to describe the importance of a floodplain area for typical species and habitats from "very high" (=5) to "very low" (=1). The aim of this "habitat provision index" is to provide a tool for planners and decision makers to compare and analyze the effects of past or future measures. The methodical approach is tested for two rivers: the Nahe and the Rhine. The performance of the index is analyzed by comparing the current conditions (status quo) against two different scenarios. The index is validated and shown to be sensitive to different water management scenarios (river restoration and technical polder scenario for flood risk enhancement), with both scenarios showing an improvement in the habitat provision value.

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