Case study:Restoration of the Erft-river in Weilerswist

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Project overview

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Status	Complete
Project web site
Themes	Economic aspects, Fisheries, Flood risk management, Habitat and biodiversity, Hydromorphology, Monitoring, Spatial planning, Water quality
Country	Germany
Main contact forename	Volker
Main contact surname	Gimmler
Main contact user ID
Contact organisation	Erftverband
Contact organisation web site	http://www.erftverband.de/
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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The Erft River was heavily trained in the 1960s to provide a higher discharge capacity for flood prevention and to make it easier to mechanically maintain the river. High dams were built along the river banks and the river bed was secured with large rocks. This river training resulted in a river with few structures ans a low morphological diversity. The restoration project has been implemented in Cooperation of the Landesbetrieb Straßen NRW (the state road authority) and the Erftverband (water board in the Erft watershed) to compensate the impact on nature and environment caused by the construction of a new road. The measure has been necessary to reach the Good Ecological State of the Erft required by the WFD. By adressing the need for compensation with a river improvement measure, inefficiencies in public spending has been avoided. The project started in April 1995 and aimed at developing a structure-rich, ecologically permeable stretch of the river with regularly flooded meadows and a high potential for self-development. About 10 hectares of cropland were bought and turned into a meadow on the left hand side of the river, towards the lowest part of the valley. The dam along the Erft separating this meadow from the river has been removed. The rocks securing the river bed on that side have been removed and groynes have been built in the river bed to add morphological diversity and initiate lateral erosion. The groynes have been designed in cooperation with the local fishery association, and according to their observation, young fish which have been drifted away by floods in the past are now able to stay in the area.

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Catchment and subcatchment

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Site

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Name
WFD water body codes
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Pre-project morphology
Reference morphology
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Heavily modified water body
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Project background

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Reach length directly affected (m)	100100 m <br />0.1 km <br />10,000 cm <br />
Project started	2002/04/01
Works started
Works completed
Project completed	2009/12/31
Total cost category	500 - 1000 k€
Total cost (k€)	717000717,000 k€ <br />717,000,000 € <br />
Benefit to cost ratio
Funding sources	Landesbetrieb Straßen NRW (the state road authority) and the Erftverband (water board in the Erft watershed)

Cost for project phases

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Reasons for river restoration

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Mitigation of a pressure	Flood risk management
Hydromorphology	Quantity & dynamics of flow, Continuity for organisms, Continuity of sediment transport
Biology	Macrophytes, Macrozoobenthos
Physico-chemical
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Measures

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Monitoring

Hydromorphological quality elements

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quality elements

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quality elements

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Supplementary Information

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