Natural change and human impact in a present-day fluvial catchment: The Geul River, Southern Netherlands

The Geul River has a long history of channel straightening and bank protection, but also has several natural meandering parts. In addition, some formerly ‘fixed’ or ‘protected’ stretches of the river have been allowed to meander freely since 1988. Therefore, it represents an ideal case for evaluating the contribution of human interference to the intrinsic evolution of the river. In this paper, we compare the response of selected (not protected) reaches of the present-day river to different human modifications. The river banks were labelled as “stable”, “unstable” or “erosive”. As might be expected, stretches with a high sinuosity have a high percentage of erosive and unstable bank length, while low-sinuosity stretches experience hardly any erosion. The amount of lateral erosion and sedimentation in natural situations is compared with that in situations with different bank protection and stabilization types. Erosion rates may locally attain up to 2 m per year. Detailed grain-size analysis of point-bar sections enable distinction of successive fining-up sequences. Vertical aggradation rates within the point-bars are up to 0.15 m yr− 1. The highest rates are found in the youngest point-bars. Collectively, the results of this study show that when bank protection is removed, the freely meandering river creates its own specific ecosystems and retention capacity increases. Such a return to natural environmental and ecological conditions is in accordance with the objectives of the European Water Framework Directive.