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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Accordingly to The United Nations World Water Development Report 2018, “Nature-based
solutions (NBS) are inspired and supported by nature and use, or mimic, natural processes to
contribute to the improved management of water”. They delivery a wide range of ecosystem
services depending on their configurations and purpose of aplication, being widely applied for
ecosystems restoration. The restoration of ecosystems is a top priority has declared by the United
Nations General Assembly, being 2021 - 2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. To
meet the current challenges, it is thus important to look closely to the threatened ecosystems such
the ones found in urban rivers and streams, that are under severe anthropogenic pressures. The
Fervença River, located into Portuguese part of the Douro basin (latitude: 41º47’N; longitude
6º46’W), is about 25 km long and it is regarded as an urban river, because flows through the city
of Bragança. Along its course it encounters nonpoint sources of pollution, originated by
agricultural activities, and point sources of pollution from some villages located in the vicinity. The
introduction of nature-based solutions, such floating wetland islands, to support the ecosystem
rehabilitation of this heavily arterialized and modified river section, can contribute to (1) reduce
nutrient concentrations in the water and thus, the algal blooms; (2) recreation of lost fluvial
habitats, contributing to the increase of the biodiversity levels. The objective of the present
approach is to evaluate the technical and economic viability of the installation of Floating islands -
one of bioengineering technologies considered nature-based - in this highly modified section of
the Fervença River. If viable, this solution could assist the improvement of ecological and visual
quality of the surrounding urban area.
Description
Keywords
Ecosystem services Urban river Biodiversity Water management Water quality river restoration
Citation
Geraldes, Ana Maria; Nogueira, Bruno; Calheiros, Cristina (2020). Nature-based solutions to support the management of aquatic ecosystems: potential application of floating islands to Fervença river. In Blue Think Conference 2020 Share Science, Spread Knowledge. Porto
Publisher
CIIMAR