Channel Responses to Global Change and Local Impacts: Perspectives and Tools for Floodplain Management, Ebro River and Tributaries, NE Spain
In the last five decades, mountain and lowland rivers of the Iberian Peninsula have undergone noticeable hydrological and geomorphological change, in response to an overall reduction of discharge, floods and sediment supply. The causes are humaninduced land use change, the building of reservoirs and...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | capítulo de libro |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2015 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad del País Vasco |
| Repositorio: | Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/78247 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10810/78247 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | channel change human impacts floodplain management fluvial Territory Ebro River |
| Sumario: | In the last five decades, mountain and lowland rivers of the Iberian Peninsula have undergone noticeable hydrological and geomorphological change, in response to an overall reduction of discharge, floods and sediment supply. The causes are humaninduced land use change, the building of reservoirs and gradual climate change. In lowland river floodplains, further significant impact comes from human interventions in the channels, such as the building embankments, in-channel gravel extractions and artificial meander cut-off. The case of the middle Ebro River and its tributaries (Aragón, Gállego and Cinca rivers) is very well suited to exemplify and analyse these processes and impacts, with morphological changes (incision, narrowing, simplification) and progressive reduction of channel migration and reduced presence of sediment bars. River migration was reduced from 15 m/year to values from 0 to 5 m/year since mid-twentieth century. Floodplain natural areas were reduced 40 % on average since 1927. In recent years, we have begun to seek solutions to mitigate these fluvial problems. Most of them are focused on floodplain management through the Fluvial Territory approach. Here we present this approach, the basic tools for its demarcation and the results of some actions of fluvial restoration already implemented. Four case studies of embankments removal are presented. Flood peak reduction was detected and morphological effects are being monitored. These initial actions could lead to new river management practices with improved river dynamics. |
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