water Article Hydro-Morphological Assessment of Dittaino River, Eastern Sicily, Italy Feliciana Licciardello 1, *, Salvatore Barbagallo 1 , Salvatore M. Muratore 1 , Attilio Toscano 2 , Emanuela R. Giuffrida 1 and Giuseppe L. Cirelli 1   Citation: Licciardello, F.; Barbagallo, S.; Muratore, S.M.; Toscano, A.; Giuffrida, E.R.; Cirelli, G.L. Hydro-Morphological Assessment of Dittaino River, Eastern Sicily, Italy. Water 2021, 13, 2499. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13182499 Academic Editor: Samuele De Bartolo Received: 30 June 2021 Accepted: 8 September 2021 Published: 11 September 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente (Di3A), Università di Catania, Via S. Sofia 100, 95123 Catania, Italy; salvo.barbagallo@unict.it (S.B.); marcellomuratore@inwind.it (S.M.M.); emanuela.giuffrida.95@gmail.com (E.R.G.); giuseppe.cirelli@unict.it (G.L.C.) 2 Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agro-Alimentari, Università di Bologna, Viale Fanin 50, 40127 Bologna, Italy; attilio.toscano@unibo.it * Correspondence: feliciana.licciardello@unict.it; Tel.: +39-0957-147-551 Abstract: The present conditions of the Dittaino River were investigated by using tools addressing different components of the IDRAIM (stream hydro-morphological evaluation, analysis, and mon- itoring system) procedure. After the segmentation of the river, the Morphological Quality Index (MQI) and the Morphological Dynamic Index (MDI) were assessed to analyze its morphological quality and to classify the degree of channel dynamics related to progressive changes occurring in the relative long-term (i.e., 50–100 years), respectively. The results show that 45% and 22% of the analyzed reaches (mainly located in highest zones of the hydrographic network) were, respectively, of high and good quality. The MQI class decreased to good and then to moderate in the downstream direction, and two reaches were of poor class. The highest MDI classes were also mainly identified in the highest zones of the hydrographic network. Some limitations (i.e., the elevated number of indicators, as well as their simplification) and strengths (i.e., the easy applicability to a large number of reaches) were identified during the application of the MQI method to the Dittaino River. Keywords: river morphology; IDRAIM procedure; Dittaino River 1. Introduction Rivers are dynamic natural systems that evolve in terms of their longitudinal and lateral sediment and morphological continuum through ongoing reworking processes [1]. The resulting morphological changes can occur at the reach scale over short periods of time and limited spatial extents, or over long time intervals (from tens to thousands of years) and involve the entire river system [2]. Moreover, the alterations may be of natural origin, or they may be anthropogenic [3]. As a response to these alterations, the river adjusts its channel geometry in order to re-establish a dynamic equilibrium between sediment supply and available transport capacity by changing the characteristic channel variables [4,5]. Sediment production and delivery to the typically confined and steep drainage net- work prevail in the upper catchment [6–10], while the large variability in terms of morpho- logical configuration and bed roughness depends on confinement, the channel slope, and the specific boundary conditions. This variability is also reflected in the presence of bars and vegetated islands, which offer favorable conditions for the establishment of wetlands. Riparian wetlands can provide an important ecological function, including habitat provi- sion for vegetation and other species, as well as regulation in the case of flooding [11,12]. In European countries, the integration of information on hydrology and fluvial geo- morphology, called hydro-morphology, has been accelerated by the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive WFD, ref. [13]. Hydro-morphology requires an interface among different topics concerning the physical processes of river management actions and strategies [14]. Since the establishment of the WFD, several methods have been adopted in Water 2021, 13, 2499. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13182499 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water