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[EN] The REDAPTA project, "Spaces of Governance for the Adaptation to Global Change in Mediterranean Rivers", developed its activities simultaneously in the Tordera (Catalonia) and Serpis (Valencia Region) river basins. The project worked in collaboration with two "spaces of governance" in the two basins: the "Taula del Delta i de la Baixa Tordera" and the "Plataforma Ciutadana per a la Defensa del Riu Serpis". The methodology used aimed at fostering knowledge exchange and deliberation, delivering an adaptation strategy for the basins including ten measures co-produced with stakeholders. The second result of the REDAPTA project is a handbook describing the concepts and approach used, the main methodological steps of the co-design process and the lessons learned during its implementation. To raise awareness and showcase the importance of public engagement in river monitoring, field visits were organised in the Tordera and the Serpis rivers, including capacity building activities. The participants were able to get to know a river stretch and, by using digital tools developed by the project teams, they could record some observations and indicators for a basic characterisation. Finally, aiming to promote this innovative approach, the project encouraged the exchange of experiences between different organisations in a specific seminar and explored their interest in creating an "Iberian Network of Spaces of Governance for Water Management"., [ES] El proyecto REDAPTA, "Espacios de Gobernanza para la Adaptación al Cambio Global en Ríos Mediterráneos", desarrolló sus actividades de forma simultánea en las cuencas de los ríos Tordera (Cataluña) y Serpis (Comunidad Valenciana). El proyecto trabajó en colaboración con dos "espacios de gobernanza": la "Taula del Delta i de la Baixa Tordera" y la "Plataforma Ciutadana per a la Defensa del Riu Serpis". Se siguió una metodología para el proceso de co-diseño, con el objetivo de intercambiar conocimientos y fomentar la deliberación, y el resultado fue un documento estratégico de adaptación, para cada cuenca, que incluye diez medidas concretas de adaptación co-producidas con los actores. El segundo resultado del REDAPTA fue un manual que describe los conceptos y el enfoque aplicados, las principales etapas metodológicas del proceso de co-diseño y las lecciones aprendidas durante su aplicación. Con el objetivo de concienciar a la ciudadanía y visibilizar la importancia del seguimiento participativo de actuaciones de mejora fluvial, se realizó una actividad en campo en ambos ríos, con una primera parte de capacitación y una segunda de toma de información. Los participantes pudieron conocer un tramo del río y, utilizando las herramientas digitales desarrolladas por el proyecto, pudieron registrar diferentes observaciones e indicadores para su caracterización básica. Por último, con el fin de promover el enfoque innovador del proyecto, se llevó a cabo una jornada de intercambio de experiencias entre diferentes organizaciones, explorando su interés en crear una "Red Ibérica de Espacios de Gobernanza para la Gestión del Agua".

En el llibre es fa un diagnóstic ecològic de les riberes, s'analitzen l'evolució històrica dels cabals circulants i la influència d'aquestos sobre les comunitats vegetals de ribera, i s'apunten una sèrie d'actuacions per a la gestió de l'aigua i l'establiment d'un régim ambiental de cabals per a conservar i regenerar la vegetació ripària. El treball suposa una profunda investigació de camp i un minuciós recorregut per les riberes del Serpis per tal d'estudiar el seu estat ecològic, que ens permet acompanyar els autors en un recorregut per aquest meravellós territori.

Biotic and abiotic interactions between the riparian zone and the river determine relevant hydrological processes and exert control over riparian and bordering upland vegetation types. Vegetation growth and development are mainly controlled by water availability on semi-arid regions, where a moisture gradient determines the transition between the densely vegetated riparian zone and the semi-arid upland. To reproduce this spatial distribution, a mathematical model named RibAV is presented. Its conceptualization is based on the main ecohydrological modelling approaches and field expertise. The implementation of RibAV that is proposed in this paper allows the simulation of the distribution of three plant functional types [herbaceous riparian vegetation (HRV), woody riparian vegetation (WRV) and terrestrial vegetation (TV)] within the riparian zone. An evapotranspiration index (Eidx) obtained through RibAV is used as a criterion for plant absence/presence prediction. Two permanent river reaches of semi-arid Mediterranean basins, the Terde reach (Mijares River, Spain) and the Lorcha reach (Serpis River, Spain), have been selected as case studies for the calibration and validation of the model, respectively. Several criteria based on the confusion matrix were used to analyse the efficiency of RibAV on the prediction of plant distribution. The satisfactory performance of the model establishing the distribution of the riparian vegetation types and the limit between this zone and the bordering upland are demonstrated in this paper; the strength of the Eidx to classify plant functional types in riparian semi-arid environments is additionally proven, The authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Environment and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for their financial support through the research projects RIBERA (21.812-061/8511) and SCARCE (Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065), respectively. In addition, the authors would like to thank the Hydrological Studies Centre (CEH-CEDEX), the Jucar River Basin Authority and the Spanish National Meteorological Agency (AEMET) for supplying the hydrological data, the aerial photographs and the meteorological data, respectively.

Riparian ecosystems are required to be preserved to achieve a good ecological status. The Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) specifically supports the assessment of new management tools that allow the European Member States to achieve good ecological status of river-related ecosystems. Within several approaches, a dynamic riparian vegetation distributed model (CASiMiR-vegetation), with a time step of 1 year, has been selected as a useful first-step tool to achieve the Water Framework Directive requirements. The model has been implemented into three river reaches with different climatic and hydrologic settings, located in three European countries. Common bases were established in the model setup. The model was calibrated independently in the Kleblach reach (Drau River, Austria), the Ribeira reach (Odelouca River, Portugal), and the Terde reach (Mijares River, Spain) with simulation periods of 8, 11 and 41 years, respectively. The parameter values and the results were comparable between the different countries. The calibration performance achieved high correctly classified instances (60%). Additionally, weighted kappa values ranged from 0·52 to 0·66 in distinguishing riparian succession phases. The model behaved similarly in the validation, even offering better results in most cases. This work demonstrates the applicability of this model in the simulation of the riparian vegetation dynamic distribution over a wide range of environments. As it performs in a robust manner and with good results in reaches with different hydrological characteristics, the model could be also applied to analyse different hydrological scenarios or to predict changes after restoration measures within a reach. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Austrian team would like to thank the Lebensministerium (Austrian Ministry of Environment) and Professor Helmut Habersack and his group from the University of Natural Resources and Life Science Vienna for the supply of the hydrological data. The Portuguese team would like to thank Antonio Pinheiro for his supervision of the hydraulic modelling. The hydrological data were supplied by the Portuguese National Hydrologic Resource Information System (SNIRH) and aerial photographs by the Portuguese Geographic Institute (IGP) under the FIGIEE programme. Patricia M. Rodriguez-Gonzalez benefited from a postdoctoral grant from FCT (SFRH/BPD/47140/2008). Antonio Albuquerque was a valuable assistant in field work. The Spanish team would like to thank in addition the Hydrological Studies Centre (CEH-CEDEX), the Jucar River Basin Authority (CHJ) and the Spanish National Geographic Information Centre (CNIG) for supplying the hydrological data and the aerial photographs for the Spanish study site.

Riparian corridors in semi-arid Mediterranean environments are ecosystems of high biodiversity and complexity. However, they are threatened because of high levels of human intervention. River damming and related flow manipulation is considered as one of the most prominent human impacts on riparian corridors. This study combines historical time series information on river flows and their human manipulation, historical aerial images depicting changes in riparian land cover and ground observations of the species - age composition and morphology of the riparian corridor of a Mediterranean river (the Mijares River, Eastern Spain) over the last 60years. In this sense, we explored how to integrate information from a wide variety of data sources, and we extracted a variety of indices and undertook analyses that identified and summarized spatio-temporal changes in riparian structure and in the driving flow processes. Results revealed an increase in the cover and density of woody vegetation and a decrease in bare sediment areas (essential for recruitment of riparian pioneer species), with a synchronous reduction in the complexity of the riparian corridor of the middle reaches of the Mijares River. These vegetation changes have accompanied a decrease in the magnitude and variability of river flows over the last six decades, with higher severity since dam closure. This study illustrates the effectiveness of combining disparate historical data sources and the effectiveness of processing these sources to extract informative metrics that can improve the understanding and management of riparian systems. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The authors are grateful to Paula De Lamo (who worked in an early version of this study), Carlos Gonzalez-Hidalgo (who gave us access to the MOPREDAS database) and Alicia Garcia-Arias and Oscar Belmar (for their support in the calculation of confusion matrices and in the flow regime analysis, respectively). We also thank Confederacion Hidrografica del Jucar (Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment) and the professors Juan Marco Segura and Javier Paredes for the hydrological data provided to develop this study. TECNOMA S. A. provided logistic support. Finally, we acknowledge the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for the two grants of the Support Programme for Research and Development 'Programa de Apoyo a la Investigacion y Desarrollo' (PAID 00-10 and 00-11). This study was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness with the projects 'Recent environmental changes in fluvial systems: morphological and sedimentological consequences' (CGL2009-14220-C02-02-BTE) and SCARCE (Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065). The feedback of two anonymous reviewers has been very helpful and is greatly appreciated.

Habitat degradation has reduced the complexity of the Mediterranean streams in Spain and contributed to decreasing the historical range of the endangered Júcar nase, Parachondrostoma arrigonis. This species is endemic to the Júcar River Basin (Spain), and most of its populations live in the Cabriel River, which is divided into two segments by the large Contreras Dam. The main objective of this study was to develop a multivariate habitat suitability model (HSM) for this species that can be used to evaluate environmental flows and water management scenarios for the Cabriel River. We first assessed the fish densities (from 2006 to 2008) and compared the habitat characteristics and variability among eight study sites based on the physical characteristics of hydromorphological units (HMUs) or mesohabitats. The abundance of the Júcar nase then was related to the HMU type, and generalized additive models of fish abundance were developed for the sites for both small and large fish. Both models showed acceptable or good performance (adjusted R 2 of 69.4 for small fish and 72.4 for large fish), and fish abundance was used as an indicator of potential habitat quality ['potential nase habitat' (PNH)] for the Júcar nase. The final step was to apply the HSM to evaluate environmentally friendly flow regimens. Hydraulic simulations were used to estimate the PNH under two flow regimen scenarios and in the actual flow regimen for the regulated study site located below the large dam. This article supports the need for new management actions in the Cabriel River, such as implementation of an environmental flow regimen, and illustrates a procedure for the practical application of habitat selection models at the mesohabitat scale., This study was partially funded by the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Rural y Marino, Confederacion Hidrografica del Jucar) and partly by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (POTECOL, CGL2007-66412). We especially thank Matias Peredo and Aina Hernandez for the co-operation in the field work and suggestions on data analysis; we also thank Rafa Casas, Marta Bargay, Pau Lucio, Merce Arenas and the students that cooperated in the field work. Thanks to Colin Custard for the academic review of English. We also acknowledge the comments and suggestions of the reviewers on this paper.

[EN] In the European context, several methodologies have been developed to assess the ecological status and, specifically, the hydromorphological status of running surface waters. Although these methodologies have been widely used, few studies have focused on hydrologically altered water bodies and the factors that may determine their status. In this study, the Serpis River was divided into 16 segments from the Beniarrés dam (40 km from the river mouth) to the sea, all of which are affected by flow regulation, but with different severity. In each segment, an inventory of the flora was conducted, and hydromorphological indices (QBR, Riparian Habitat Quality Index; and IHF, River Habitat Index) were applied. The objectives of the study were (A) to identify relationships between floristic composition and QBR components and (B) between instream habitat characteristics and IHF components as well as (C) to determine the main factors controlling the floristic composition and riparian habitat quality (QBR) and the factors controlling instream habitat characteristics and heterogeneity (IHF). A cluster analysis allowed grouping sites according to their floristic composition and instream habitat characteristics, and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was used to ordinate the sites, obtaining the biotic and instream habitat characteristics, as well as the QBR and IHF subindices, which better explained the spatial patterns. Finally, a canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) with predictor variables (geographical, hydrological, geomorphological and human pressures) indicated the main factors controlling the spatial patterns of the floristic composition, instreamhabitat characteristics, riparian habitat quality and instream habitat heterogeneity. A gradient of riparian and instream habitat quality was identified. Our results suggest that physical constraints (presence of a gorge) have protected sites from severe human impacts, resulting in good ecological quality, despite hydrological alteration. This area, where there is geomorphological control, could be potentially reclassified into a different ecotype because regular monitoring could be using incorrect references for index scores, and naturally high scores could be confused with recovery from hydrological alteration or other pressures. The sites with the worst quality were near the river mouth and were characterised by an artificial and highly variable flow regime (related to large autumnal floods and frequent human-induced periods of zero flow). This artificial flow variability as well as the presence of lateral structures in the river channel and geomorphological characteristics were identified as the main factors driving the hydromorphological and floristic pattern in this regulated river., [ES] Diversas metodolog´ıas han sido desarrolladas en el contexto europeo para evaluar el estado ecologico, y espec ´ ´ıficamente el estado hidromorfologico de las aguas superficiales. Aunque ´ estas han sido ampliamente utilizadas, pocos estudios se han centrado en masas de agua hidrologicamente alteradas y en los factores que condicionan su estado. En este ´ estudio, el r´ıo Serpis fue dividido en 16 segmentos desde la presa de Beniarres (a 40 km de la desembocadura) hasta el mar, todos ´ ellos afectados por la regulacion de caudales con distinta severidad. En cada segmento se realiz ´ o un inventario flor ´ ´ıstico y se aplicaron ´ındices hidromorfologicos (QBR, Calidad del Bosque de Ribera, e IHF, ´ ´Indice de Habitat Fluvial). Los ´ objetivos del estudio fueron (A) identificar relaciones entre la composicion flor ´ ´ıstica y los componentes del QBR, (B) entre las caracter´ısticas del habitat fluvial y los componentes del IHF, (C) determinar los principales fa ´ ctores que controlan la composicion flor ´ ´ıstica y la calidad del habitat ripario (QBR), y las caracter ´ ´ısticas del habitat fluvial y su heterogeneidad ´ (IHF). Un cluster permitio agrupar los puntos de muestreo seg ´ un su composici ´ on flor ´ ´ıstica y las caracter´ısticas del habitat fluvial, y un escalado multidimensional no-m ´ etrico (NMDS) fue usado para ordenar los puntos, obteniendo las ´ variables bioticas y caracter ´ ´ısticas del habitat y los subindices del QBR e IHF, respectivamente, que explicaban m ´ ejor los patrones espaciales. Finalmente, un analisis de correspondencias can ´ onicas (CCA) con variables predictoras (geogr ´ aficas, ´ hidrologicas, geomorfol ´ ogicas y presiones humanas) indic ´ o los principales factores que controlan los patrones espaciales de ´ la composicion flor ´ ´ıstica, las caracter´ısticas del habitat fluvial, la calidad del h ´ abitat ripario y la heterogeneidad del h ´ abitat ´ fluvial. Se identifico un gradiente de calidad del h ´ abitat ripario y fluvial. Los resultados sugieren que las limitaciones f ´ ´ısicas (presencia de un can˜on) han protegido a los tramos de impactos humanos severos, resultand ´ o en una buena calidad ecologica ´ a pesar de la alteracion hidrol ´ ogica. Esta zona podr ´ ´ıa potencialmente ser reclasificada en un ecotipo diferente, ya que un monitoreo regular podr´ıa estar usando referencias incorrectas para los ´ındices y sus altas puntuaciones naturales se podr´ıan estar confundiendo con una recuperacion de la alteraci ´ on hidrol ´ ogica o de otras presiones. Los puntos de muestreo con peor ´ calidad estuvieron cerca de la desembocadura y tuvieron un regimen de caudales alterado y muy variable. Esta variabilidad ´ artificial del caudal, junto con la presencia de estructuras laterales en el cauce y las caracter´ısticas geomorfologicas fueron ´ identificadas como los principales factores determinantes del patron hidromorfol ´ ogico y flor ´ ´ıstico en este r´ıo regulado., The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript and the Jucar River Basin Authority (CHJ) for supplying public hydrological data. This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs (RIBERA Project) and the Ministry of Education and Science (projects TETIS-2, CGL2005-06219; POTECOL, CGL2007-66412; RIPFLOW, CGL2008-03076-E/BTE). We would also like to thank the CEIC Alfons El Vell (Gandia) for partially funding this research with a grant to Virginia Garofano G ´ omez. The translation of this paper was funded by the Universitat Politecnica de Val ` encia, Spain.