Monitoring, river restoration and the Water Framework Directive

Monitoring is an important aspect of any procedure that seeks to determine whether a technique has worked effectively. The river restoration process is no different. Unfortunately, monitoring is often not undertaken due to constraints on time and resources, as well as the commonly held belief that river restoration is inherently a good thing and, as a result, monitoring is unnecessary. There are many reasons to monitor projects and among the most important is the need to learn from experiences and for regulatory compliance. This paper examines the issues associated with the monitoring of river restoration schemes. In particular, it details monitoring selection models focusing on those associated with ecology and geomorphology. The paper also considers the requirements of monitoring schemes that will help deliver the goals of the Water Framework Directive (WFD).