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Measures and management challenges

In some countries and regions in the EU, such as the international river basins of the Rhine and Danube, actions have been taken or are ongoing to reconcile inland waterway development with river restoration objectives. Key measures to mitigate the impacts of inland navigation on rivers and lakes include the reconstruction of groynes, the removal of hard bank reinforcements and replacement with soft engineering solutions, the re-connection of side arms, floodplains and ox-bows to restore river habitats, as well as the use of more ecologically orientated dredging for maintenance of waterways.

The environmental objectives of the WFD are a major driver for the development of such measures within the RBMPs. In addition, to support the objective of more sustainable inland waterway transport, several European guidelines have been developed indicating good practices for waterway development which is compatible with environmental protection requirements (e.g. PIANC guidelines for sustainable inland waterways and navigation (of 2003), PLATINA Manual on Good Practices in Sustainable Waterway Planning (of 2010)).

Also, the issue of pollution from inland navigation needs to be addressed with appropriate measures. For instance, to deal with pollution and emissions from navigation on the Rhine, a convention on the collection, deposit and reception of waste produced during navigation on the river waterways was adopted in 2009 (ICPR, 2015). Deliberate or accidental losses of pollutants from inland navigation are being recorded in the International Warning and Alarm Plan for the Rhine (ICPR, 2019).

Large-scale strategies for more sustainable inland navigation on national or regional level are being developed. Examples include the ‘Blue Ribbon’ Programme in Germany which aims at creating a system of ecologically re-shaped waterways, by funding the renaturation of federal waterways and their floodplains. The programme focuses on the sections that are no longer needed for cargo shipping (minor waterways) but also implements “ecological stepping stones” in the major waterways (BMU/UBA, 2016). At the transboundary level of the Danube basin, a Joint Statement on Inland Navigation and Environmental Sustainability in the Danube provided principles and criteria for environmentally sustainable inland navigation, including the maintenance of existing waterways and the development of future waterway infrastructure (ICPDR, 2019).

At the same time, though, there may be an increase in inland waterway transport, in view of EU targets to shift part of long-distance road freight to rail and waterborne transport (see Commission White Paper / Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area (EC, 2011)). Future plans for inland navigation in Europe however need to take account of the changing climatic conditions. Intense recent droughts in 2018 led to very low river flows which made parts of major European waterways such as the Rhine and the Danube unnavigable for larger cargo barges.