Hydromorphological quality as a key element of the ecological status of Polish Carpathian rivers

Abstract

After a few decades of efforts to detect, quantify and counteract the effects of water pollution on river biota, recent years have brought an increasing understanding of significance of hydromorphological quality of rivers for their ecological status, and research on Polish Carpathian rivers has contributed to the progress in this field. Our team developed a method of hydromorphological assessment of rivers, which is based on the European Standard EN-14614 and compromises between the needs for practical application and the environmental significance of results. Application of the method in rivers with varied channel pattern confirmed its usefulness and showed a significant impact of channelization and channel incision on the hydromorphological quality of Carpathian rivers