LINKING SCIENCE TO PRACTICE: TOOLS TO ASSESS RIVER STATUS AND GUIDE REHABILITATION TO OPTIMIZE RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT (Invited Presentation)

How are we knowing our rivers? What toolkits, building upon which foundations, do we use to assess river character, behaviour, condition, pressures, limiting factors, evolutionary traits, and likely futures? Perhaps more importantly, how do we frame these understandings alongside local knowledges to inform river restoration? The REFORM project has made many advances in developing an integrative platform for such endeavours. Importantly, the integrative hydrogeomorphic template that has been produced is cross-scalar (hierarchical), process-based, and is readily adapted to the wide range of conditions across Europe (and beyond). Framing catchment-based approaches in their regional context provides an important basis to work with change, supporting meaningful transferability of understandings from one situation to another. This helps to evaulate impacts of cumulative effects, rather than endeavouring to address issues in isolation.