ECOSEDRIV

Ecological implications of restoring sediment flows in regulated rivers.

The ECOSEDRIV project understands and quantifies the interactions between suspended sediments, flow regime and biological communities in highly regulated rivers to design new reservoir management schemes to restore sediment flow towards the coast in a sustainable way.

ECOSEDRIV takes the lower Ebro River as a model of highly regulated river systems with a strong sediment deficit and where large floods were suppressed, to test the hypotheses raised by the project.

Deltas are among the most vulnerable coastal systems and require sediment inputs for their progradation and vertical accretion. In this sense, the Ebro delta is a perfect example of this global problem and is one of the most cited in the literature to illustrate the deficit of river sediments and its effect on coastal dynamics.

The development of nature-based solutions (NbS) is necessary to increase the delta’s resilience to climate change. Restoration of fluvial processes, such as river flows and sediment flows, is one of the most suitable NbS to stop coastal erosion and increase delta elevation.

Eurecat participates in the ECOSEDRIV project through its Climate Solutions and Ecosystem Services (CLIMSES) Unit, responsible for the overall coordination of the project and for carrying out the interpretation of the overall results, while the Nutrition and Health Unit analyses the effects of suspended sediment concentration on the fish fauna using physiological stress biomarkers.