Développement d’un indice de qualité pour les projets de renaturation des petits cours d’eau

Details

Supervisors

Soares Frazao, Sandra

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil des constructions, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

enRivers perform a significant number of essential ecological and socio-economic functions. Small watercourses make up the majority of the hydrographic network in terms of total length, and they actively contribute to the quality of downstream waterways. Natural watercourses are necessary for managing extreme climatic events (heavy rainfall or drought). However, the quality of many watercourses has been impacted by human activities. Restoring small watercourses is now indispensable to slow biodiversity loss and to recover a natural fluvial dynamic. Nevertheless, the process of restoring a watercourse can prove long and costly, making it inaccessible to many. It is in this context that the Rivialis project was born. The Rivialis application aims to provide a rapid diagnostic of a watercourse’s ecological status and to serve as a decision‐support tool for private individuals or municipalities wishing to undertake renaturation works on a section of an impacted watercourse. However, comparing the initial condition of the watercourse to each possible renaturation variant requires a solid reference framework, which in turn demands the development of a quality index dedicated to small watercourses: the small river quality index (indice petit cours d'eau - IPCE). The goal of this thesis is to lay a foundation for the development of the IPCE. The hydromorphological quality of the Orneau, a small river in Gembloux, was evaluated in two ways: in the field and remotely. From this practical application arise perspectives for improvement, in order to define a robust and relevant quality index for the intended scope.