HyMoCARES: Hydromorphological assessment and management at the basin scale for the Conservation of Alpine Rivers and related Ecosystem Services

General information about the project

Full project title: Hydromorphological assessment and management at basin scale for the Conservation of Alpine Rivers and related Ecosystem Services

Project title in Slovenian: Hidromorfološko vrednotenje in upravljanje porečij za ohranitev alpskih vodotokov s pripadajočimi ekosistemskimi storitvami

Project acronym: HYMOCARES

Project code: ASP445

Programme: Interreg Alpine Space

Starting in 2017, HYMOCARES – Hydromorphological assessment and management at basin scale for the Conservation of Alpine Rivers and related Ecosystem Services, is being carried out with a purpose to enhance the hydromorphological state of the rivers in the Alpine area. Main objective of the project is, in accordance with national and regional legislation and strategic goals of water management and nature conservation, to improve hydromorphological state of the rivers with the implementation of ecosystem services (ES), e.g. improved flood protection, optmised renewable energy production, biodiversity preservation and last but not least, to improve the awareness of the rich services, provided by Alpine Rivers.

Key tasks and expected results of the HYMOCARES project are:

1. preparation of methods and tools in order to properly evalaute the scale of the ecosystem services and their current state,
2. framework development in order to control effects and benefits of concrete measures, that are being planned to improve sediment transport connectivity and ecological state of the Alpine Rivers,
3. foundation development to define the evaluation of the effect of various activities and measures on individual ecosystem services and mutual effect,
4. basis preparation to develop optimal management and growth scenarios (water and riparian management planning, river ecosystem management, etc.) with proper effect on ecosystem services availability,
5. promoting results to the target groups (mainly experts and decision/policy makers in the field of achieving good water status and nature conservation) in order to integrate them into the processes of EU directives and national legislation implementation.

The implementation of the forementioned tasks and results in Slovenia will be presented through a pilot case on the section of Drava River, between HPP Zlatoličje and HPP Formin.