Importance of considering riparian vegetation requirements for the long-term efficiency of environmental flows in aquatic microhabitats

Rivaes, Rui; Boavida, Isabel; Santos, José M.; Pinheiro, António N.; Ferreira, Teresa

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-5763-2017

Articles | Volume 21, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-5763-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-5763-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 11

Research article

|

22 Nov 2017

Research article |

| 22 Nov 2017

Importance of considering riparian vegetation requirements for the long-term efficiency of environmental flows in aquatic microhabitats

Rui Rivaes, Isabel Boavida, José M. Santos, António N. Pinheiro, and Teresa Ferreira

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-5763-2017-supplement

Data sets

Data availability to ensure the reproducibility of the results of Rivaes et al. (2017) in the journal HESSD R. Rivaes, I. Boavida, J. M. Santos, A. N. Pinheiro, and M. T. Ferreira https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.839531

Short summary

We analyzed the influence of considering riparian requirements for the long-term efficiency of environmental flows. After a decade, environmental flows disregarding riparian requirements promoted riparian degradation and consequently the change in the hydraulic characteristics of the river channel and the modification of the available habitat area for fish species. Environmental flows regarding riparian vegetation requirements were able to sustain the fish habitat close to the natural condition.