Reviving Europe's rivers: Seven challenges in the implementation of the Nature Restoration Law to restore free-flowing rivers.

They use riverine ecosystems to illustrate existing ambiguities in the proposed legislation and the potential consequensces of leaving these aspects open to interpretation during the implememntation process. They also discuss potential solutions to these problems which could help ensure that the law's objective are met. They argue that river network structure and connectivity dimensions which result into river meta-ecosystems, must be explicitely considered. For purpose, they ask for clear definitions of the critical terms "free flowing rivers", "barriers" and "reference areas". In addaition they recommend developing methods for integrated assessment of connectivity across river networks. As a key property of river eco-systems, this must be used to prioritise actions to increase the length and number of free flowing rivers. Adequate restoration planning and lager spatial scales will benefit from a meta-ecosystem pespective and accurate representation of aquatic-terrestial linkages, which will significantly improve the efficacy of restoration efforts. Furthermore, stakeholder and citizen engagement offer important  opportunities at local, national and European scales, and should forested to ensure inclusive decision making.