Case study:Aesthetic vs. functional restoration of urban and peri-urban rivers: the Manzanares River in Madrid

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Location: 40° 25' 0.39" N, 3° 42' 13.64" W

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Project overview

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Status	In progress
Project web site
Themes	Environmental flows and water resources, Habitat and biodiversity, Hydromorphology, Land use management - forestry, Social benefits, Urban
Country	Spain
Main contact forename	Fernando
Main contact surname	Magdaleno
Main contact user ID
Contact organisation	Centre for Studies and Experimentation on Public Works (CEDEX)
Contact organisation web site	http://www.cedex.es/CEDEX/lang castellano/
Partner organisations
Parent multi-site project
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects	No

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Project summary

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Peri-urban reach

• Improvement of environmental flow regime: the environmental flow regime should be optimized to allow for a better river dynamics. The discharge of episodic controlled floods could be capable of regenerating the riverbed and improving the solid transport (Magdaleno, 2017). The characteristics of these floods have been designed and proposed to the water authorities.

• Rescue and transfer of native ichthyofauna such as barbel (Luciobarbus bocagei), Iberian nase (Pseudochondrostoma polylepis) and Iberian gudgeon (Gobio lozanoi).

• Increased complexity and hydraulic diversity by using materials of coarse granulometry at certain sections, favoring the generation of optimal erosion and sedimentation patterns.

• Forestry works and removal of exotic vegetation: These works include the cutting of dry or dying vegetation, or the pruning of specimens that require an improvement in their structure or that have risks for the visitors. Also ailanthus –Ailanthus altissima-, box elder –Acer negundo- and false acacias –Robinia pseudoacacia- will be removed.

• Restoration of riparian vegetation on the river banks, the margins, the floodplain and the distal areas.

• Removal of excessive patches of helophytic species in the channel. Reed species -Phragmites australis- and narrowleaf cattail –Typha angustifolia- will be removed.

• Removal of obsolete transversal works and artificial barriers: the remains of an old gauging station, and some sedimentary heaps (with a total volume of 10,000 m3) accumulated in the channel which are creating large backwaters, and which have been colonized by pioneer vegetation will be removed.

• Construction of fish ramp.

• Removal of landfills in the riparian areas to recover a certain degree of naturalness in the transversal profiles of the channel, which are now very much incised. the newly created surfaces will be re-vegetated, using plant propagules from the area.

• Improvement of trails. Also different signs and educational materials will also be installed for visitors.

Urban reach

The progressive opening of the regulatory gates of the Manzanares River. The first effect of this opening was the reduction of the artificial depth of the dammed river (close to or greater than 2 m), the recovery, after decades of complete immobility, of sediment transport and the reappearance of a wide number of species of fauna and flora associated with the recently created fluvial forms. The creation of sandy islands and bars along the urban reach, and their rapid colonization by natural vegetation, has accelerated the change of the fluvial landscape. The City Council plans, at this moment, the creation of bioengineered slopes in the banks formerly covered by rip-raps, the planting of riparian species in the upper part of these slopes, and some other landscaping and environmental design project (such as the creation of a fish pass in one of the regulatory gates, the reintroduction of native ichthyofauna, or the creation of a fish breeding centre, among others).

Monitoring surveys and results

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1. The restoration projects under execution or recently implemented in the urban and peri-urban reaches of the Manzanares River in Madrid have shown the high capacity of historically degraded rivers to enjoy a fast recovery of many important functions and services, following a correctly designed hydromorphological and ecological restoration or rehabilitation.

2. Even the more constrained urban reaches may sustain interesting aquatic and riparian habitats, and attract many different floral and faunal species. This is the case of the urban downtown reach of the river, which has bloomed in terms of bird and fish communities immediately after the restoration of some basic hydrogeomorphic patterns. In this case, the maintenance of a managerial approach strictly based on certain aesthetic values would have involved keeping the river in a very poor condition, with no natural processes attached and a total lack of relevant biotic communities.

3. Restoration of a minimum functionality of urban reaches requires restoring, as far as possible, the dynamics of the peri-urban reaches both upstream and downstream. The urban reach must not be an isolated water shackle, unable to constitute part of a river corridor which offers a large diversity of functions and services to the city and to its citizens.

4. The legal, scientific, technical and social advances recently developed in the approach to rivers must be reflected in their management. Strictly engineered solutions are frequently not cost-efficient, since they use to leave aside a wide number of the rivers´ functions and services. Selfmaintenance or self-restoration of rivers is also not an appropriate solution in most cases, since the pressures and constraints around rivers require active managerial approaches. Green infrastructures and natural water retention measures, as presently considered in the literature and in the legal context, may guide the efforts to restore urban and peri-urban rivers, because they involve multi-functional solutions, and can create the necessary links between the many different laws and policies which nowadays rule urban and peri-urban rivers.

Lessons learnt

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Catchment and subcatchment Select a catchment/subcatchment Site Edit site Name WFD water body codes WFD (national) typology WFD water body name Pre-project morphology Reference morphology Desired post project morphology Heavily modified water body National/international site designation Local/regional site designations Protected species present Invasive species present Species of interest Dominant hydrology Dominant substrate River corridor land use Average bankfull channel width category Average bankfull channel width (m) Average bankfull channel depth category Average bankfull channel depth (m) Mean discharge category Mean annual discharge (m3/s) Average channel gradient category Average channel gradient Average unit stream power (W/m2) Project background Edit project background Reach length directly affected (m) Project started Works started Works completed Project completed Total cost category Total cost (k€) Benefit to cost ratio Funding sources Cost for project phases Phase cost category cost exact (k€) Lead organisation Contact forename Contact surname Investigation and design Stakeholder engagement and communication Works and works supervision Post-project management and maintenance Monitoring Reasons for river restoration Edit reasons for restoration Mitigation of a pressure Hydromorphology Biology Physico-chemical Other reasons for the project Measures Edit Measures Structural measures Bank/bed modifications Floodplain / River corridor Planform / Channel pattern Other Non-structural measures Management interventions Social measures (incl. engagement) Other Monitoring Hydromorphological quality elements Edit Hydromorphological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Biological quality elements Edit biological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Physico-chemical quality elements Edit Physico-chemical quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Any other monitoring, e.g. social, economic Edit Other responses Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Monitoring documents Upload monitoring documents Additional documents and videos Upload additional documents Additional links and references Edit links and references Link Description Supplementary Information Edit Supplementary Information