Nature in cities. Renaturalization of riverbanks in urban areas

Most of the rehabilitations of river sections withtheir banks in cities has often been inappropriate. The rea-son for this is that designers do not understand the nat-ural functioning of a river and they are synthesizing andsterilizing these urban spaces, distorting its natural func-tioning. Besides, there are clear proofs that these rehabili-tations are useless, contributing to the devaluation of theriver ecosystem without improving its relationships withthe city. The other effect of the water lines destructions arethe educational terms, broadcasting a wrong idea of thefunctioning of the river.This article tries to show briefly, how a river works, whatarethe natural characteristics which should be valued by arehabilitation and what has gone wrong in recent rehabili-tation works. Using the theoretical drawings, based on ex-amples from real life, and supported by photographs, theauthors present also the possible negative consequencesof the urban mistakes for the sake of operating of cities.The paper shows some techniques of natural engineering,using natural materials and vegetation that may be em-ployed. This may become a green intervention, makingthese techniques much more economic and educational,improving life quality thanks to public access to attractiveparks and squares by rivers.