RESTORE's Rivers by Design guide to river restoration for land-use professionals has had a few minor changes, including an update to the table showing the benefits of river restoration in the planning and development process.

The guide shows the crucial role planners, architects and developers the crucial role they can play in river restoratation. The document explains the contexty and need for river restoration and provides guidance on planing projects to make sure sustainable development is achieved.

Over 70 representatives from London’s planning and architecture sector joined RESTORE for an afternoon on the Thames in August.  The event was co-hosted and organised with New London Architecture, who work to promote London's architecture, planning and development sectors.

The European Commission recently released its Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources, outlining proposals to ensure better implementation of the EU’s water policy objectives. Several initiatives recognise the benefits of river restoration to improve the ecological status of Europe’s waters.

The Blueprint includes proposals on natural water retention, ecological flows and water accounts, and encourages restoration measures in the River Basin Management Plans and Flood Risk Management Plans submitted by Member States.

View the Blueprint submission by RESTORE and partners: http://www.restorerivers.eu/Publications/tabid/2624/mod/11083/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/3297/Default.aspx

View the Blueprint: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/blueprint/index_en.htm

RESTORE and several partners with an interest in European water policy made the following submission to the European Commission's Consultation on Policy Options for the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's waters. We highlight the importance of river restoration and green infrastructure for improving the health of Europe's waters and the role our networks can play in achieving these goals.

In a Radio 4 programme aired in April as part of the Nature series, Brett Westwood explored the growing use of coarse woody debris (CWD) in managing rivers.  

 ''According to Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, fish live in trees too'', says the BBC Radio 4. ''The Trust's biologists are using wood as a remarkably effective tool to change the depth and flow of streams and improve them for wildlife. They don't just stop at streams either: at the confluence of the Tame and Trent rivers, they've submerged entire willow trees in gravel islands in a project to widen the river channel.