Ecosystem services, an opportunity to improve restoration practices in river corridors ?

The ecological and socioeconomic functions of river and riparian ecosystems are broadly recognised. In this article, we aim to highlight the opportunity that ecosystem services can represent in the improvement of management practices in river and floodplain systems, specifically with regards to the definition of the objectives in restoration projects. We discuss how the concept of ecosystem services can be theoriticaly used (i) to move from reference-based to objective-based projects, (ii) to promote a real integrated approach merging scales and disciplines, (iii) to provide comprehensible and concrete arguments for project implementation and (iv) to include humanmade features and ecosystems and to promote a well-balanced relationship between Man and Nature