**3. Results**

*3.1. Dupu¸s River*

Based on the field inventory, on the Dupus, River, only one refuge was identified with a depth of 150 cm (i.e., Figure 3), and the other non-refuge sectors (i.e., Figure 4) had different depths between 10 to 80 cm.

In the Dupus, River, three fish species have permanent populations: *Gobio gobio* (Linnaeus, 1758) (9 total caught individuals), *Barbus meridionalis* Risso 1827 (6), and *Squalius cephalus* (Linnaeus, 1758) (3).

The ratio between the total number of fish between the refuge habitat of maximum 10 m length and the adjacent/downstream non-refuge sector of 500 m length was two to one.

**Figure 3.** Dupu¸s River refuge habitat.

**Figure 4.** Dupu¸s River non-refuge sector.

The single identified refuge habitat is present in the lower third of the river (Scheme 1) revealing the drought-related risks for the biodiversity in at least two thirds of the river sectors.

Given the shallow depth of the Dupus, River and the vulnerabilities that occur for fish during periods of drought, the building of artificial refuges for fish from about 500 to 500 m is proposed. In total, it would be necessary to build a number of 12 such refuges with a depth of at least one meter (Scheme 1).
