Floodplain conservation vs landscape development – how to tackle the multifunctional management issue

Ecosystems lining rivers perform a number of functions making it reasonable to protect themfrom significant degradation. A natural characteristic of floodplains is their regular inundation,during which sediments, wood and nutrients are eroded, mobilized or deposited, therebyrestoring these valuable ecosystems. However, the key attributes of floodplains, such as fertilesoil, flat terrain, availability of water, sediments and wood, are also the subjects of humanexploitation. The flood control embankments in urban and agricultural areas are justified andeffective solutions to reduce flood risk. However, when combined with unnaturally incised andenlarged river channels, they are limiting natural flooding and connectivity of floodplains isfundamentally degraded. To analyse different approaches to floodplain protection, weconducted a review supported by the expertise of specialists in selected countries of Centraland Southern Europe. We concluded that in most of these countries, there is no targetedprotection of floodplains as an ecological phenomenon. Comprehensive protection is mostlyonly afforded to small-scale areas, valued due to the occurrence of Europe’s most threatenedspecies and habitats (Natura 2000 network). Except for segments of a few large rivers, thesesites are not connected and therefore significant support for the longitudinal continuity ofwater-dependent ecosystems cannot be expected. This inevitably leads to the gradualdegradation of floodplain ecosystem functions and services. The floodplain management innon-urban areas, wherever natural spillover of floods to the surroundings is possible andwhere floodplains have been inappropriately embanked, seems to be a suitable solution forsupporting the ecological functionality of these ecosystems.