Assessments of river condition are needed to guide all aspects of river management. Such assessments have evolved over three decades from simply capturing the mosaic of river physical habitats to recognizing that habitat mosaics are dynamic, driven mainly by physical processes and modified by human (indirect) pressures and (direct) interventions. To embrace these broader aspects, riparian as well as in‐stream environments need to be evaluated, going beyond subjective assessments to incorporate observations that support understanding of both physical habitat structure and cause‐effect relationships. This paper reports on an operational approach to assessing the physical condition of rivers, which attempts to bridge the gap between a physical habitat and a geomorphic condition assessment. The approach forms part of Biodiversity Metric 2.0, a habitat‐based methodology for measuring and accounting for biodiversity losses and gains resulting from development or land management change at individual project sites across England. The river condition assessment component adopts a bottom‐up multi‐scale approach that integrates field observations of physical habitats and of features indicative of geomorphic processes to deliver assessments of longer subreaches, whose condition is then evaluated within the context of the reach‐scale geomorphological type of river. By applying the assessment before, immediately after, and following recovery from project implementation, changes in condition and their causes can be evaluated. The assessment method is presented to an international audience, outlining its structure, application and testing, and critically discussing its strengths and weaknesses, because the methodological approach could be helpful for devising methods for application in other environmental contexts.

中文翻译：

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评估河流状况：为在生物多样性净收益范围内的业务应用而设计的多尺度方法

需要评估河流状况以指导河流管理的各个方面。从仅仅捕获河流物理栖息地的镶嵌图到认识到栖息地镶嵌图是动态的（主要是由物理过程驱动，并受到人（间接）压力和（直接）干预措施的影响），这样的评估已经发展了三十多年。为了涵盖这些更广泛的方面，除了主观评估之外，还需要评估河岸和河流环境，以纳入支持对物理栖息地结构和因果关系的理解的观察结果。本文报告了一种评估河流自然状况的操作方法，该方法试图弥合自然栖息地与地貌条件评估之间的差距。该方法是生物多样性指标2.0的一部分，一种基于栖息地的方法，用于测量和计算英格兰各个项目地点因开发或土地管理变更而导致的生物多样性损失和收益。河流状况评估部分采用了自下而上的多尺度方法，该方法整合了对自然栖息地和地貌过程指示特征的现场观测，以评估更长的子区域，然后在到达规模地貌类型的背景下评估其状况。河。通过在从项目实施中恢复之前，之后和之后进行评估，可以评估条件的变化及其原因。该评估方法向国际受众介绍，概述其结构，应用和测试，并严格讨论其优缺点，