Hydromorphological assessment to support river management and restoration

This study explores the role and skills of hydromorphological assessment methods in supporting river management and restoration, with a major focus on the Italian process-based method MQI (Morphological Quality Index; Rinaldi et al., 2011), and its applicability to European rivers, in order to fulfil the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD; European Commission, 2000). Three major objectives directed the lines of analysis: i) to critically review the European methods and their capacity in supporting WFD river management stages; ii) to analyse the diagnostic capacity, robustness and objectivity of MQI and verify its potential to inform river management and restoration; iii) to test and enable the applicability of MQI to European rivers through appropriate modifications and finally propose an enhanced version to support management and restoration of Italian and European rivers compliantly with WFD.