A major component of river restoration is the recreation of instream physical habitat heterogeneity and re‐establishment of the linkage between the in‐channel and adjacent floodplain environment. Re‐engineering channels to reinstate a more natural form and the restoration of water and sediment transfer can bring multiple benefits particularly if undertaken as part of an environmental strategy for the whole catchment. The benefits usually include improvements to the ecological quality of rivers and reductions in the severity of flooding downstream. These benefits are achievable because rivers in their natural state are ecosystems that maintain high bio‐diversity, floodplains when inundated attenuate flows, and flooding of low‐lying areas creates wetlands and washlands of high nature conservation value and flood storage potential. This paper will explore (i) how the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) (EC, 2000) will become an increasingly important driver for catchment‐based river restoration in the UK, and (ii) how river restoration has the potential to deliver ecological improvements in rivers consistent with WFD targets whilst, at the same time, providing more sustainable flood management.

Assessments of river condition are needed to guide all aspects of river management. Such assessments have evolved over three decades from simply capturing the mosaic of river physical habitats to recognizing that habitat mosaics are dynamic, driven mainly by physical processes and modified by human (indirect) pressures and (direct) interventions. To embrace these broader aspects, riparian as well as in‐stream environments need to be evaluated, going beyond subjective assessments to incorporate observations that support understanding of both physical habitat structure and cause‐effect relationships. This paper reports on an operational approach to assessing the physical condition of rivers, which attempts to bridge the gap between a physical habitat and a geomorphic condition assessment. The approach forms part of Biodiversity Metric 2.0, a habitat‐based methodology for measuring and accounting for biodiversity losses and gains resulting from development or land management change at individual project sites across England. The river condition assessment component adopts a bottom‐up multi‐scale approach that integrates field observations of physical habitats and of features indicative of geomorphic processes to deliver assessments of longer subreaches, whose condition is then evaluated within the context of the reach‐scale geomorphological type of river. By applying the assessment before, immediately after, and following recovery from project implementation, changes in condition and their causes can be evaluated. The assessment method is presented to an international audience, outlining its structure, application and testing, and critically discussing its strengths and weaknesses, because the methodological approach could be helpful for devising methods for application in other environmental contexts.

Rock glaciers are increasingly influencing the hydrology and water chemistry of Alpine catchments. During three consecutive summers (2017–2019), we monitored by recording probes and fortnightly/monthly field campaigns the physical and chemical conditions of two rock glacier springs (ZRG, SRG) in the Zay and Solda/Sulden catchments (Eastern Italian Alps). The springs have contrasting hydrological conditions with ZRG emerging with evident ponding (pond‐like), and SRG being a typical high‐elevation seep (stream‐like). Water temperature was constantly low (mean 1.2°C, standard deviation 0.1°C) at both springs. Concentrations of major ions (dominated by SO₄²⁻, HCO₃⁻, Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺) and trace elements (As, Sr, Ba, U, Rb) increased, and water became more enriched in heavy stable isotopes (δ¹⁸O, δ²H) towards autumn. This solute and isotopic enrichment had an asymptotic trend at SRG, and a unimodal pattern at ZRG, where peaks occurred 60–80 days after the snowmelt end. Wavelet analysis of electrical conductivity (EC) and water temperature records revealed daily cycles only at SRG, and significant weekly/biweekly fluctuations at both springs attributable to oscillations of meteorological conditions. Several rainfall events triggered a transient (0.5–2 h) EC drop (of 5–240 μS cm⁻¹) and water temperature rise (of 0.2–1.4°C) at SRG (dilution and warming), whereas only intense rainfall events occasionally increased EC (by 15–85 μS cm⁻¹) at ZRG (solute enrichment and thermal buffering), with a long‐lasting effect (6–48 h). Building on previous research, we suggest that rock glacier springs with differing flow conditions, that is, stream‐like and pond‐like, have contrasting fluctuations of water parameters at different timescales. Thus, for pond‐like springs, peaks of EC/solute concentrations might indicate a seasonal window of major permafrost thaw. Our quantitative description of the hydrochemical seasonality in rock glacier outflows and the physical and chemical response to precipitation events provides relevant information for water management in mountain areas under climate change.