Sediment management measures are  becoming increasingly popular as they are  considered sustainable from both economic  and environmental point of view. For example,  aimed at counteracting river bed degradation,  sediment nourishments have been carried out  in the German reaches of the Rhine river while  a nourishment pilot study has recently taken  place at the Dutch Rhine and a nourishment  project has been scheduled for the Danube by  the Austrian water management authorities.  Moreover, sediment management measures  are implemented in various ecological  restoration projects (e.g. Trinity river in U.S.  and Nunome river in Japan) as sediments and  their characteristics form the habitats of the  biota, as well as in river training projects  around the world.

The main objective of this research is to  improve our understanding of the relative  contribution of the causes of long-term bed  degradation in Rhine and other degrading  rivers. That is, the research is intended to  quantify past channel adjustment processes,  mainly bed degradation and bed surface  coarsening over time and space, and to predict  future trends, in bed elevation and bed surface  texture, resulting from past interventions.