Evaluation of the morphological quality index in the Cordevole river (Bl, Italy)

The European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC), which came into force in Italy under Decree Law no. 152 of 3rd April 2006, has as its objectives the protection and improvement of aquatic ecosystem status, promoting the sustainable use of water resources and mitigating the effects of floods and droughts. According to this Directive, the ecological classification of a watercourse should be considered in addition to physical-chemical and biological aspects of its hydromorphological condition, in order to define the deviation of the present condition from a pre-defined reference state. The Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research has promoted a methodology called IDRAIM for the hydromorphological analysis of streams. This is an integrated approach aimed at implementing both WFD and EU Flood Directives (2007/60/EC). In this paper, we describe the application of the morphological quality index (MQI) protocol, which is part of the IDRAIM, used for evaluating the morphological quality of the Cordevole River, Province of Belluno, northeastern Italy. General settings and segmentation of the water network through the use of semi-automatic GIS techniques were presented. The MQI data derived from the application of 28 indicators in 42 reaches were then analysed. Most (48%) of the analysed reaches have a good quality status; 38% have a moderate quality status and poor morphological conditions (14%) are due to the presence of artificial elements and to the limited connectivity between hill-slopes and the river corridor.