Channel changes and floodplain management in the meandering middle Ebro River, Spain

The 346 km of the middle Ebro River between Logroño and La Zaida is a free meandering channel in a wide floodplain. This reach contains a discontinuous riparian corridor, including valuable riparian forests and oxbow lakes. The Ebro has witnessed substantial changes in channel morphology, gravel bars, riparian vegetation and floodplain uses over the last 80 years. The growth in sinuosity, migrations and meander cut-offs have been frequent before 1981. Afterwards, bank protections and dykes have stabilized the channel. There has been a progressive and significant decrease of both the area covered by water and the gravel bars without plant colonization. As a result the width of the riparian corridor has been dramatically reduced for human use. The deceleration and near elimination of the free meander dynamics of the Ebro channel represent an important loss of natural heritage. Dams, land-use changes throughout the basin, and construction of flood defences that restrict the main channel have changed the river system behaviour, which urgently needs a management plan combining both improvement and risk reduction. The solution proposed is the creation of a “Fluvial Territory”.