Background In Europe, techniques for rehabilitating river sediments contaminated with heavy metals have tended to focus on ex-situ physical and chemical approaches, such as pyrometallurgical separation, solidification, electrokinetics, soil washing, and excavation and burial at hazardous-waste sites. Remedial techniques based on phytoextraction have scarcely been used. These work by transferring heavy metals and excess nutrients from soils to plants, which can then be periodically removed from the system. The riverbed and banks of the Guadalentin River in Murcia are contaminated with heavy metals and vegetation cover is degraded. This is mainly as a result of direct waste spills coming from industries (mainly tanneries), farms (swine) and agriculture (excessive fertilisation with swine slurries). However, as in the rest of Europe, Murcia has only limited experience of working on contaminated sediments and this experience is mostly restricted to research operations. Objectives The RIVERPHY project aims to demonstrate the use of phytoextraction techniques to successfully rehabilitate a stretch of the contaminated Guadalentin River, downstream from the industrial and urban areas of Lorca. Supported by effective evaluation and dissemination activities, the project aims to develop an alternative and sustainable approach to the environmental and landscape rehabilitation of contaminated rivers. The project plans to use native accumulator plants - which will be periodically removed from the system and replaced - to absorb heavy metals and excess nutrients from the soil. In addition, techniques of bioengineering and landscape integration will be used to protect slopes and restore native communities of flora and fauna. Together, these changes will provide vegetative cover and mitigate soil erosion, re-establishing a stable ecological equilibrium that is compatible with its surroundings and which takes full account of the needs of the local population and traditional activities. The project plans to make further use of the residual plants that have accumulated the contaminants in the phytoextraction process. These will be processed as biomass for energy generation and the extracted metals recovered for subsequent use in the manufacture of other products, such as concrete. Monitoring and dissemination activities will help to spread awareness of the effectiveness of these techniques. Expected results: A 20% reduction in Cr, Cu and Zn in the contaminated riverbed; Establishment of riparian vegetation – from less than 50% cover to more than 75%, and from fewer than 10 different species of native vegetation to more than 20; Restored microbial communities and plant colonisation; Restored physical, chemical and biological properties of soil and restored soil functioning; Landscape restoration based on ecological and aesthetic criteria; Generation of 14 515 kg of dry biomass, equivalent to 8.1 MW/h per ha; Successful demonstration of the feasibility of phytoextraction techniques to rehabilitate contaminated riverbeds.