The EU Biodiversity Strategy includes the target that at least 25000 km of rivers should be restored into free-flowing rivers by 2030 through the removal of primarily obsolete barriers and the restoration of floodplains and wetlands. This document proposes criteria for identifying free-flowing rivers, taking into account longitudinal, lateral, and vertical connectivity at local and catchment scales. The aim is to provide a tool that can be used by authorities to determine the length of free-flowing rivers in their catchments. In addition, the tool can be used to predict the increase in free-flowing river length resulting from barrier removal and other restoration measures. This will help prioritising measures that can contribute to the 25,000 km target.

Source: European Commission