Re-mark of dead wood in Ter river
13th of October 2021
Regarding the monitoring activities of our “Dead wood displacement protocol in river areas in Mediterranean basins”, we keep on with the re-marking of wood rests which will be used as a monitoring tool. These rests, at long-term, will offer us nature-based solutions from an innovative perspective. Large dead wood rests have direct influence on river morphology, sediment erosion, and retention processes, creating large sedimentation areas. They contribute to the decrease of floods effects by dissipating part of the energy from the water flow while retaining suspended solids and particles. Dead wood rests are part of the river system, and they contribute to their biodiversity such as by forming microhabitats and by allowing soil carbon retention. However, the accumulation of dead wood in rivers increases the risk of damaging infrastructures (such as bridges and dams) causing an increase in overflows as a result.
To assess the possible effects of dead wood on river geomorphology, it is important to understand its distribution, movement, and permanence in place.
Understanding the dynamics of dead wood mobilization in rivers and riverbeds, will allow the development of guidelines on how to manage this dead wood to maintain or enhance the ecological dynamics of rivers while reducing the risk to damage infrastructure at the
same time. This need is a priority, especially in the case of large accumulation of dead wood produced by extraordinary floods. In these situations, as a management measure it is usually applied a systematic removal of the dead wood without regard to ecological criteria to preserve it in those places where it is not representing a significant risk to river infrastructures.
Since Gloria storm of 2020 and its floods, there hasn’t been any other one capable to mobilize our market dead wood. Patience and water!
