The state of the art of aquatic and semi-aquatic ecological restoration projects in the Netherlands

Nienhuis, P.H.; Bakker, Jan P.; Grootjans, Albert; Gulati, R. D.; Jonge, VN de

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-1335-1_12

Cited by 27 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…1995). Both positive and negative outcomes of projects must be shared regionally, nationally and internationally (Nienhuis & Gulati 2002). As we gain experience with ecological restoration and document our findings, and should restoration methods prove effective across a range of conditions, it may be logical to reduce the effort invested in assessment.…”

Section:     :     -mentioning

confidence: 99%

Standards for ecologically successful river restoration

Palmer

Bernhardt

Allan

et al. 2005

Journal of Applied Ecology

1,251

1,046

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Summary1. Increasingly, river managers are turning from hard engineering solutions to ecologically based restoration activities in order to improve degraded waterways. River restoration projects aim to maintain or increase ecosystem goods and services while protecting downstream and coastal ecosystems. There is growing interest in applying river restoration techniques to solve environmental problems, yet little agreement exists on what constitutes a successful river restoration effort. 2. We propose five criteria for measuring success, with emphasis on an ecological perspective. First, the design of an ecological river restoration project should be based on a specified guiding image of a more dynamic, healthy river that could exist at the site. Secondly, the river's ecological condition must be measurably improved. Thirdly, the river system must be more self-sustaining and resilient to external perturbations so that only minimal follow-up maintenance is needed. Fourthly, during the construction phase, no lasting harm should be inflicted on the ecosystem. Fifthly, both pre-and postassessment must be completed and data made publicly available. 3. Determining if these five criteria have been met for a particular project requires development of an assessment protocol. We suggest standards of evaluation for each of the five criteria and provide examples of suitable indicators. 4. Synthesis and applications . Billions of dollars are currently spent restoring streams and rivers, yet to date there are no agreed upon standards for what constitutes ecologically beneficial stream and river restoration. We propose five criteria that must be met for a river restoration project to be considered ecologically successful. It is critical that the broad restoration community, including funding agencies, practitioners and citizen restoration groups, adopt criteria for defining and assessing ecological success in restoration. Standards are needed because progress in the science and practice of river restoration has been hampered by the lack of agreed upon criteria for judging ecological success. Without well-accepted criteria that are ultimately supported by funding and implementing agencies, there is little incentive for practitioners to assess and report restoration outcomes. Improving methods and weighing the ecological benefits of various restoration approaches require organized national-level reporting systems.

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Section:     :     -mentioning

confidence: 99%

Standards for ecologically successful river restoration

Palmer

Bernhardt

Allan

et al. 2005

Journal of Applied Ecology

1,251

1,046

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“…In European lowland regions such as the Netherlands, lakes have been thought to be exposed to increased nutrient enrichment, particularly since the 1950s, due to external input of nutrients (e.g., Gulati & van Donk, 2002;Nienhuis et al, 2002;Bates et al, 2008) and this effect is amplified by climatic change. A recent palaeolimnological study showed eutrophic to hypertrophic conditions in a Dutch floodplain lake at least since the fifteenth century, caused primarily by human activities (Kirilova et al, 2009b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eutrophication of moderately deep Dutch lakes during the past century: flaws in the expectations of water management?

et al. 2009

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We studied the trophic development of the past 30-100 years in eight moderately deep Dutch lakes based on their sedimentary fossil diatom assemblages. The dominant diatoms indicating meso-to eutrophic conditions were Aulacoseira subarctica, Cyclotella ocellata, C. cyclopuncta, C. meneghiniana, Puncticulata bodanica, Aulacoseira granulata, Cyclostephanos dubius, C. invisitatus, Stephanodiscus hantzschii, S. medius, and S. parvus. Ordination of diatom data separated the lakes into four groups according to their total phosphorus concentrations (TP), water supply, water management, and origin. The first group consists of dike-breach lakes, which were in stable eutrophic to hypertrophic conditions throughout the past century with diatom-inferred TP (DI-TP) concentrations of between 70 and 300 lg l -1 . The main factors influencing these dike-breach lakes are river management, ground water supply of riverine origin, and local land use. The second group are artificial lakes of fluctuating oligo-to mesotrophic conditions and DI-TP concentrations of 10-30 lg l -1 . Only one of the artificial lakes showed a DI-TP increase due to changes in catchment agricultural practice. A third group includes an artificial moat and an inland dike-breach lake with DI-TP concentrations of 50-100 lg l -1 . The fourth group contains an individual dike-breach lake with stable mesotrophic conditions of 50 lg l -1 throughout the past century. Rather than showing a regional pattern, the studied lakes behave very individualistically with regard to their trophic history, reflecting changes in the local hydrology and in their nutrient sources.

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“…Project reporting is a critical step in the progression of restoration practices and techniques in that it can allow for knowledge mobilization around aspects of restoration that are and are not successful [11,33,34,51]. Reporting can provide practitioners of restoration projects with valuable information on how to design and implement future projects.…”

Section: Project Reportingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The regulatory reporting criteria vary depending on the type and scale of project; some forms of reporting are extensive while others are minimal. For approximately half of the restoration projects examined during our research, reports were also made publicly available by the CBWM organization, showing transparency in reporting on project outcomes as recommended in the literature [11,33,34,51]. These reports were posted online on the CBWM organizations' websites.…”

Section: Project Reportingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within the literature there are some prominent criteria for restoration success: clear project goals and objectives [33,34,40,52,54,61]; the collection of baseline data and pre-restoration conditions [33,34,37,40,52,62] and clear reporting or documentation of the outcome including failure [11,33,34,51,52]. Restoration activities should be strategically targeted to prioritize the preservation of high-quality habitat, reconnection of habitat, and restoring processes that maintain and create habitat [45,53,56,58].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Monitoring, Restoration, and Source Water Protection: Canadian Community-Based Environmental Organizations’ Efforts towards Improving Aquatic Ecosystem Health

Garda

Castleden

Conrad

2017

Water

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Abstract:In Canada, environmental monitoring has been the responsibility of government for decades; however, funding cutbacks have left many agencies unable to provide comprehensive coverage. This has stimulated a rise in community-based water monitoring (CBWM) organizations. These organizations, operating at multiple scales, have tasked themselves with monitoring aquatic ecosystems. Additionally, they often engage in restoration projects stemming from their monitoring work. Despite the growing abundance of CBWM organizations, there is uncertainty as to whether their activities lead to aquatic ecosystem benefits. A thematic analysis of photographic and qualitative interview data was employed to examine restoration projects conducted by five CBWM organizations, and the projects' potential impact on source waters. Findings show that while they are conducting activities that show physical change, which is indicative of ecosystem improvement, examples of measurable responses within aquatic ecosystems remain rare. Monitoring, restoration, and source water protection processes are challenged by a lack of funding, capacity, and monitoring procedures. Funding, particularly, restricted the extent to which monitoring could be conducted and influenced project scope and scale. This leads to a lack of capacity to conduct large-scale restoration and rigorous scientific monitoring. Consequently, our findings highlight the issues with detecting effects of small-scale projects at the watershed scale.

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The state of the art of aquatic and semi-aquatic ecological restoration projects in the Netherlands

Cited by 27 publications

References 40 publications

Standards for ecologically successful river restoration

Standards for ecologically successful river restoration

Eutrophication of moderately deep Dutch lakes during the past century: flaws in the expectations of water management?

Monitoring, Restoration, and Source Water Protection: Canadian Community-Based Environmental Organizations’ Efforts towards Improving Aquatic Ecosystem Health

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