Evaluación ecohidráulica multidimensional del hábitat acuático en la conservación de hidrosistemas fluviales.

This paper highlights the ability of eco-hydraulics to improve the understanding of the fluvial ecosystem dynamics and the assessment of the aquatic habitat in the context of the conservation and restoration of lotic hydrosystems. The high-resolution analytical framework used in eco-hydraulics to describe the conditions of the fluvial microhabitat, and its complementarity with ecohydrological techniques, suggests the justifiable recommendations that will be more completely scrutinized in the river restoration projects. The paper summarizes the procedure for the eco-hydraulic evaluation of the fluvial microhabitat using temporal and spatial scales, whose results are interpreted in studies of instream flows, fluvial habitat enhancement, and river restoration. The described protocol for the multidimensional fluvial characterization permits the detailed modeling of the micro-hydraulic environment that is perceived by aquatic organisms and conditions heir behavior. This work summarizes the valuable potential of the scientific tools that ecohydraulics offers for the advanced analysis of the fluvial ecosystem and the design of measures for the conservation and rehabilitation of Colombian rivers. The ecohydraulic index that assesses the global quality of the aquatic microhabitat can efficiently incorporate the ecological considerations in water resource management and in the design of intervention in the rivers. The new interdisciplinary frontier of fluvial hydraulics that is constituted by ecohydraulics provides new challenges for hydro-scientific research, as the convenient incorporation of biological criteria and the resulting interpretation in streams with high biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]