River Rehabilitation: A New Approach to The Design of Fish Passes Through Dams

Ecosystems of most European rivers were significantly altered by human activity throughout the 20th century with the aim of facilitating economic development and settlement protection. The ecosystem needs and environmental now requirements were neglected, which resulted in river ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. As a rule, river rehabilitation programs are costly and complicated processes. While aiming at overall river ecosystem rehabilitation, recently initiated restoration programs should take into account regional peculiarities and specificities. One of the relatively cheap and easy technologies to deal with some aspects of river rehabilitation and securing environmental flow needs is suggested. It is based on restoration of the migration routes for the most sensitive and vulnerable river basin species: migratory fish, such as sturgeons. The existing fish passing facilities in South Russia are inefficient and require urgent replacement. The proposed technologies for fish passage through the dams and barrier complexes are based oil the "non-forced" principle, unlike the predominant 20th century approach to fish transfer.