Shore channel sedimentary processess, passability by migrating fish and habitat suitability

The current study consists of three parts (1) an analysis of the sedimentary processes in the shore channels along the longitudinal dams in the River Waal (LTDs), (2) an assessment of the upstream passability of the shore channel inflows by migratory fish species, and (3) an analysis of the habitat suitability of the shore channels for fish, macroinvertebrates and macrophytes. For the first analysis, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), multibeam echosounder (MBES), and aerial photographs datasets were used to examine geomorphological processes (erosion and deposition), calculate the retreat rate of eroding banklines, and analyze the development of shoreline length over time in the mesohabitats of shore channels and reference study areas. The second part of the analysis focused on the use of acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP) datasets to produce 3D lattices of flow velocity in the inflow openings of shore channels at high river discharge. This was combined with data and linear relations from scientific literature on the swimming performance of relevant migratory fish species in the Rhine. The third part consisted in assessing the habitat suitability of the shore channel with the data on substrate, water depth and flow velocity collected in 2020. This was done using the species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) available in the scientific literature for fish, macroinvertebrates and macrophytes occurring in the Rhine.