With the aim of achieving "good ecological status" in all water bodies by 2015, the Water Framework Directive requires Member States to put more emphasis on hydromorphological issues and watercourse connectivity for the conservation and restoration of fish populations. The aim for the third cycle of the "Forum Fish Protection and Downstream Migration" is to continue the series of workshops on fish protection and downstream migration and to evaluate them in papers, reports and publications. In addition, the website forum-fischschutz.de will be updated and improved. In this project, the fourth UBA Hydromorphology Workshop will also be organised.

During the first period of the Forum Fish Protection and Downstream Fish Migration, more than 200 people from different fields, such as water management and nature conservation by the states and the federal government, the federal waterway administration and transport development, the energy industry, the water engineering, fishery biology, nature conservation, fishery and fishery associations and the university science were involved. In the second cycle of the Forum from 2015 to 2018, three two-day events were held to deepen the statements of the first cycle and to continue the constructive dialogue.

The infographic gives an examplary overview of the multitude and type of injury of fish at complex hydropower sites.

The infographic gives an overview of which characteristic causes of injury of fish is caused by which typical corridor components (e.g. barriers, turbines).

This infographic visualizes the cumulative impacts of all technical water installations in the migration area of fish that determine the effects on population biology.

The infographic visualises various risks of fish injury caused by technical water installations.

The infographic presents the optimisation process during site-specific evaluations. Deficiencies can be identified at an early stage, during technical and hydraulic characterisation and during study of fish migration. Optimisation proposals can then be developed. Thus the efficacy of optimisation measures implemented can be tested during the course of the evaluation process.

The infographic presents the five-step process for deriving the final statement on function for the investigation of biological downstream migration by fish.

The infographic presents the process and criteria to be considered for the design development for an investigation of fish downstream migration.

The infographic schematically shows vertical and horizontal oblique inflow of fish protection screens.

The manual helps to examine a wide range of sites, including complex spatial constellations. Sites with transverse structures as well as hydro power plants and tangential water withdrawal systems can be evaluated. This infographic shows site examples of different spatial complexity.

The infographic visualizes the four spatial areas of investigation of the manual in an examplary fashion. The spatial levels are: site, corridor group, corridor and corridor component.

The infographic shows a site example for potential fish migration paths.

The infographic visualizes interactions across several ecological levels. The death of individual fish reduces the population size of its species. Because of multiple ecological interactions this can cause changes in the entire biocenosis.

On 22 June 2015, Eleftheria Kampa, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute gave a presentation on the German Forum on fish protection and downstream migration at the 5th International Fish Passage Conference in the Netherlands. In her presentation, she illustrated how the Forum has been a successful instrument for participation and improving acceptance for measures on fish protection and downstream migration, which are a topic of intensive and often controversial discussions in recent years in Germany. The presentation slides are available for download.