Indicators of resilience, evaluation and criteria for management and restoration

Abstract

By resilience we understand the capacity of a system to absorb possible alterations and reorganise itself, while undergoing changes to essentially maintain the same function, structure, identity and feedback (Walker et al. 2004). A threshold of geomorphological stability can be surpassed in an ephemeral channel when faced with changes which are intrinsic to itself or external variables (Schumm, 1979). Normally, this type of resilience is accompanied by resistance or difficulty that ephemeral streams face when the geomorphic equilibrium state is altered due to natural processes or human activities (Thoms et al. 2018). Generally, all types of equilibrium referred to fluvial geomorphological systems can be applied to intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), taking into account the peculiarities of their function, which is irregular and discreet over time, through specific hydrological events of different magnitudes: