Resumen de La restauració fluvial a Catalunya: desenvolupament de protocols d'avaluació = River restoration in Catalonia: assessment protocols development
River restoration has become an increasing activity in recent years, but no assessment methods existed to guide restoration projects design. The aim of the thesis was to explore the practice of river restoration in Catalonia and to develop several protocols that contribute to its systematization. Thus, a methodology based on the evaluation of the contents of river restoration projects (APR Protocol) has been elaborated. This has been validated by its application to a sample of 40 river restoration projects, allowing to analyze this activity in Catalonia between 1999 and 2011. The analysis revealed significant shortcomings in monitoring plans of restoration projects. As a consequence, an ad hoc-methodology which enables practitioners to design programs to follow up project success (SPR Protocol) has been developed. Additionally, since project actions by themselves may cause impact on the river ecosystem, the effect during the execution phase was investigated for one of the most common measures in Catalan restoration projects: the elimination of giant reed (Arundo donax). To this end, the effect of the application of an herbicide with glyphosate as active ingredient was tested over the macroinvertebrate community (both at the functional and structural levels). The goals of this research have been met and it is expected that they will contribute to the advance of river restoration, as the parts involved continue promoting river restoration projects, and sharing their experiences and results.
