Why does it matter how a river flows?

CGTN Europe

For centuries, people have been straightening rivers. But rivers should naturally meander and curve. Without those “wiggles” the water doesn’t clean itself because it flows too quickly, that can also cause flooding and a loss of habitat for wildlife. Watch the full RAZOR episode on why we should “rewiggle” our rivers on our YouTube channel - just look for RAZOR science show.  #razor #razor_science #razor_science_show #razorscienceshow  #science #sciencetok #riverestoration #britishwildlife #waterpollution

Transcript

00:00Rivers naturally should meander and curve, but why does it matter?

00:10In the river there are literally hundreds and hundreds of different species of invertebrates and different species of fish

00:17and they've all got slightly different habitat requirements.

00:20Some of them like fast water, some of them like slow water, some of them like shallow water, some of them like deep water.

00:26A natural river provides all that and the meanders provide all that and the fallen wood because it makes the water move around.

00:33What are the signs here then that the water is really good quality?

00:37So you can see the plant life starting to come back really quickly already.

00:40So there's things like starwort and water forget-me-not and that creates brilliant habitat and a great food source.

00:47Also there's more patches of clean gravels where it looks like the trout have been spawning and disturbing the gravel.

00:53The clarity of the water is looking really good, so hopefully we're looking at a healthy river.

Category

Transcript

Recommended