North American and European governments have adopted national programs for environmental monitoring and assessment that include the use of aquatic biota. These programs will use a variety of indicators of environmental health; benthic macroinvertebrates are one of the most promising of them. The chapters in this book deal with the many different approaches available for using benthic macroinvertebrates in biological monitoring programs.

The assessment of the ecological integrity of running waters is a prerequisite to an understanding of the effects of human alterations. The evaluation of degradation processes provides key information on how to avoid further negative impacts. The success of future conservation, mitigation and restoration activities will rely on sound assessment methodologies and their ecological relevance and applicability. Assessment methodologies are therefore an integral part of sustainable river management. This book synthesizes and discusses state-of-the-art experiences in assessment methodologies. Including the latest knowledge on structures, processes and functions of running waters as a fundamental basis for developing adequate assessment methods, the book focuses on method development, application, and in particular on integrated assessment methods. This book is directed at scientists and managers with the aim of more effective preservation, restoration and maintenance of the ecological integrity of running water ecosystems.

This open access book surveys the frontier of scientific river research and provides examples to guide management towards a sustainable future of riverine ecosystems. Principal structures and functions of the biogeosphere of rivers are explained; key threats are identified, and effective solutions for restoration and mitigation are provided. Rivers are among the most threatened ecosystems of the world. They increasingly suffer from pollution, water abstraction, river channelisation and damming. Fundamental knowledge of ecosystem structure and function is necessary to understand how human acitivities interfere with natural processes and which interventions are feasible to rectify this. Modern water legislation strives for sustainable water resource management and protection of important habitats and species. However, decision makers would benefit from more profound understanding of ecosystem degradation processes and of innovative methodologies and tools for efficient mitigation and restoration. The book provides best-practice examples of sustainable river management from on-site studies, European-wide analyses and case studies from other parts of the world. This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of aquatic ecology, river system functioning, conservation and restoration, to postgraduate students, to institutions involved in water management, and to water related industries.

This new volume addresses the environmental impacts of pollution on freshwater aquatic ecosystems and presents sustainable management and remediation practices and advanced technology help to address the different types of pollutants. Freshwater Pollution and Aquatic Ecosystems: Environmental Impact and Sustainable Management considers the need for sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective tools and technologies to assess, monitor, and properly manage the increasing issues of aquatic pollution. It provides detailed accounts of the phenomena and mechanisms related to aquatic pollution and highlights the problems and threats associated with pollution contamination in freshwater. It provides useful insight into the sustainable and advanced pollution remediation technology adopted by different countries for the monitoring, assessment, and sustainable management of pollution. The chapters in the volume evaluate the sources of harmful pollutants, which include industrial effluents, sewage, and runoff from agricultural industries, which result in toxic microbes, organic waste, oils, and high load of nutrients. Unsustainable management practices of domestic sewage and indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides lead to the technological disturbance of aquatic biota. In addition to harming aquatic biota, these pollutants find their way into the human body through inhalation, ingestion, or absorption and finally tend to bio-accumulate in trophic levels of the food chain, which poses a major risk to human beings. This book will be a valuable resource for ecologists, environmentalists, scientists, and many others for their work in understanding and management of aquatic pollutants in freshwater biospheres.

Biological monitoring of running waters is a scientifically and economically valid approach for surveys and monitoring programmes to assess the water quality. Biological Monitoring of Rivers is a timely, up-to-date book that includes a good number of practical how-to-do chapters. Up-to-date assessment of biological water monitoring Practical how-to-do chapters help the practitioner Provides a broad survey of methods uses inside and outside the EU Gives perspectives for future applications