Determination of the Qualitative Features of Watercourses for Restoration in the Urban Environment

Abstract Watercourses that are in good environmental conditions dominate the landscape and urbanized areas. In most cases, regulated channels only provide flood protection, but do not add value to urbanized areas. Therefore, it is necessary to restore the regulated streams on the basis of objective information. The research on the impact of river regulation on the quality of an aquatic habitat was carried out during the years 1995-2015. The effect of structural and trophic transformation of river guilds as a result of river training was evaluated by the Instream Flow Incremental Methodology (IFIM) and indicated by ichthyofauna. This paper presents the results of the assessment of the quality of an aquatic habitat in selected stream reaches. Application of the results for designing the river restoration and prognosis of the qualitative changes in the channel are documented on the specific example of the Bebrava River.