Transcript River Restoration Overview (*.pptx)

Water Resources Research:
River Restoration
Katie Halvorson
Main point:
“Many river restoration projects
are conducted with minimal
scientific context.”
Their definition of river restoration:
 “assisting the establishment of
improved hydrologic, geomorphic, and
ecological processes in a degraded
watershed system and replacing lost,
damaged, or compromised elements of
the natural system”
The two ideas:
 Restoration of PROCESS is more likely to
succeed instead of a fixed end point.
 Only addresses symptoms
 Needs to be looked at in the context of
an entire watershed.
Limitations:
 Lack of scientific knowledge of
watershed-scale projects
 Dynamics of watershed
 Structures that are poorly suited to
large-scale management
 Lack of political support
Three common factors limiting river
function:
1. Transferring knowledge from one
study to another
2. Restoration actions are applied to too
small of scales
3. Integrating disciplinary knowledge into
interdisciplinary understanding.
Quick fixes = not good
 Bank stabilization
 Fencing
 Engineering fish habitat
 Commercial uses
 Esthetic interests
 Recreational uses
Study
 >38,000 restoration projects in US
 Most commonly stated goals:
 Enhance water quality
 Manage riparian zones
 Improve in-stream habitat
 Fish passage
 Bank stabilization
No complete watershed idea
“many restoration activities
have failed”
Strategy for achieving vision
 Continually develop theoretical framework
that allows achieving restoration objectives.
 Develop studies examining relative
contributions of processes operating at
different time and space scales.
 Enhance the science and use of restoration
monitoring.
 Link science, practitioners, and stakeholders.
Thank you!