What is Smart Fishways?
Modern society currently requires large volumes of fresh water. The result is the installation of river barriers, causing the fragmentation of habitats as well as changes in the ecology of freshwater systems. Stepped fishways can allow fish to move freely up rivers to complete their life cycle. However, the variability of rivers modifies the hydraulic conditions within fishways, affecting the free movement of fish.
Smart Fishways is a EU-funded project which aims to assess the effect of hydrological variability on stepped fishways and to develop a technological and methodological framework to monitor fishways' performance in real-time. By combining fish biology, hydraulics and sensor networks, a new generation of smart fishways will be created, capable of self-deciding their optimal configuration.
Duration: 2021-2023
Overall budget: 160,932.48 €
Objectives
To develop a framework to monitor fishway performance in real time.
To identify key components affecting fish passage and the optimal layouts to facilitate the passage.
To set management rules to optimize fishway performance under variable hydrological scenarios.
To develop the first generation of Smart Fishways, capable of decision making for optimizing their performance.
Partners and collaborators
Funding
The Smart Fishways project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101032024.