INHABIT project

The following characteristics of habitat survey methods have been considered as suitable for the scope of INHABIT project:

• the ability of quantifying the natural variability of a set of habitat parameters known to have an influence on biotic communities composition, according to standard WFD compliant procedures;
• the ability in quantifying habitat features influencing ecological status classification, both in natural and altered sites;
• the ability in defining the interaction between habitat features and nutrient concentration.

The results of selection of habitat survey methods and protocols are described in Deliverable Pd3 (in Italian). The following topics are considered:

• review of WFD requirements for hydromorphological characterization of water bodies, with reference to CEN standards;
• short review of available methods for hydromorphological characterization according to WFD requirements and RBMPs implementation;
• description of relations among habitat, hydromorphology and WFD;
• description of hydromorphological and habitat features to be evaluated and that can be related to biotic communities and nutrients availability;
• presentation of field protocols;
• presentation of the indices, calculated from CARAVAGGIO method, quantifying the information related to different habitat aspects and definition of class boundaries for each index;
• general overview on state of the art on Heavily Modified Water Bodies.