These webpages, targeted to river restoration practitionners accross Europe, present how river preservation and restoration are carried out in France and give access to practical and technical resources on these topics.

Several centuries of direct and indirect human actions on streams and rivers have led to considerable and even irreversible degradation of their ecological state. Implementing river restoration is an important way to address these issues. Restoration refers to a large variery of measures and practices, which can vary considerably in size, ambition and complexity. These are aimed at restoring the natural state and functioning of the river system in support to biodiversity, to enable its sustainable and multifunctional uses. To find out about the reasons for river restoration, visit the " Why restore? " section.

Awareness of this degradation was one of the factors leading to the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) in 2000, which has set out ambitious objectives for the ecological status, and continuity of rivers. The European directive implementation section provides an overview of the transposition of this regulatory framework in France, the tools used and actors involved, as well as some information on the implementation of the Flood Directive in France.