River restoration is one of the most prominent areas of applied water-resources science. From an initial focus on enhancing fish habitat or river appearance, primarily through structural modification of channel form, restoration has expanded to incorporate a wide variety of management activities designed to enhance river process and form. Restoration is conducted on headwater streams, large lowland rivers, and entire river networks in urban, agricultural, and less intensively human-altered environments. We critically examine how contemporary practitioners approach river restoration and challenges for implementing restoration, which include clearly identified objectives, holistic understanding of rivers as ecosystems, and the role of restoration as a social process. We also examine challenges for scientific understanding in river restoration. These include: how physical complexity supports biogeochemical function, stream metabolism, and stream ecosystem productivity; characterizing response curves of different river components; understanding sediment dynamics; and increasing appreciation of the importance of incorporating climate change considerations and resiliency into restoration planning. Finally, we examine changes in river restoration within the past decade, such as increasing use of stream mitigation banking; development of new tools and technologies; different types of process-based restoration; growing recognition of the importance of biological-physical feedbacks in rivers; increasing expectations of water quality improvements from restoration; and more effective communication between practitioners and river scientists.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/2014WR016874

The science and practice of river restoration

Restoration of aquatic ecosystems: Science, technology, and public policy

Ecological restoration is widely practiced as a means of rehabilitating ecosystems and habitats that have been degraded or impaired through human use or other causes. Restoration practices now are confronted by climate change, which has the potential to influence long-term restoration outcomes. Concepts and attributes from the resilience literature can help improve restoration and monitoring efforts under changing climate conditions. We systematically examined the published literature on ecological resilience to identify biological, chemical, and physical attributes that confer resilience to climate change. We identified 45 attributes explicitly related to climate change and classified them as individual- (9), population- (6), community- (7), ecosystem- (7), or process-level attributes (16). Individual studies defined resilience as resistance to change or recovery from disturbance, and only a few studies explicitly included both concepts in their definition of resilience. We found that individual and population attributes generally are suited to species- or habitat-specific restoration actions and applicable at the population scale. Community attributes are better suited to habitat-specific restoration at the site scale, or system-wide restoration at the ecosystem scale. Ecosystem and process attributes vary considerably in their type and applicability. We summarize these relationships in a decision support table and provide three example applications to illustrate how these classifications can be used to prioritize climate change resilience attributes for specific restoration actions. We suggest that (1) including resilience as an explicit planning objective could increase the success of restoration projects, (2) considering the ecological context and focal scale of a restoration action is essential in choosing appropriate resilience attributes, and (3) certain ecological attributes, such as diversity and connectivity, are more commonly considered to confer resilience because they apply to a wide variety of species and ecosystems. We propose that identifying sources of ecological resilience is a critical step in restoring ecosystems in a changing climate.

/pdf/a-systematic-review-of-ecological-attributes-that-confer-1wka59qgci.pdf

A systematic review of ecological attributes that confer resilience to climate change in environmental restoration.

Strategies for Restoring River Ecosystems: Sources of Variability and Uncertainty in Natural and Managed Systems

Instream and floodplain wood can provide many benefits to river ecosystems, but can also create hazards for inhabitants, infrastructure, property, and recreational users in the river corridor. We propose a decision process for managing large wood, and particularly for assessing the relative benefits and hazards associated with individual wood pieces and with accumulations of wood. This process can be applied at varying levels of effort, from a relatively cursory visual assessment to more detailed numerical modeling. Decisions to retain, remove, or modify wood in a channel or on a floodplain are highly dependent on the specific context: the same piece of wood that might require removal in a highly urbanized setting may provide sufficient benefits to justify retention in a natural area or lower-risk urban setting. The proposed decision process outlined here can be used by individuals with diverse technical backgrounds and in a range of urban to natural river reaches so that opportunities for wood retention or enhancement are increased.

Management of Large Wood in Streams: An Overview and Proposed Framework for Hazard Evaluation†

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/4020/noaa_4020_DS1.pdf

Science base and tools for evaluating stream engineering, management, and restoration proposals

Developing, Designing, and Implementing Restoration Projects

The ‘Project Risk Screening Matrix’ derives from a broader effort to assist US government agency staff in reviewing proposed stream management and restoration projects more efficiently and effectively. The River Restoration Analysis Tool (RiverRAT) developed through this effort provides a thorough, comprehensive and auditable approach to review and evaluation of proposed stream actions and projects (www.restorationreview.com). The matrix was initially developed as the first step in applying the RiverRAT, its purpose being to assist reviewers in assessing the risk to natural resources associated with a particular proposal and matching the intensity of their review to the severity of that risk. Hence, the primary application of the matrix to date has been to identify and screen out low risk projects that may be dealt with expeditiously, and so freeing the time and technical resources needed to allow deep reviews of higher risk projects. A second form of screening emerged from this primary function because the matrix proved adept at identifying the minimum level of site and project characterization required to support initial risk assessment. On this basis, proposals lacking adequate information can also be screened out, being referred back to the proponent with a request for additional information. More recently, new and novel versions of the matrix, featuring modification and refinement of one or both of the original axes, have emerged to widen and refine its application to linear infrastructure (e.g. pipelines, roads, and electrical transmission lines), instream structures (e.g. large wood placement and culvert removal), and pre-application, regulatory, decision-support tools.

/pdf/project-risk-screening-matrix-for-river-management-and-2ridgl5g7b.pdf

Project Risk Screening Matrix for River Management and Restoration

Salmonids in the Pacific Northwest face a number of threats: habit degradation, loss of habitat, overharvest, competition from hatchery fish, dams, and climate change. Wood has been shown to play a key role in many aspects of stream habitat quality; however, it is in low supply in many Pacific Northwest streams because of wood removal and timber harvest practices in riparian zones. Wood placement for restoration has the potential to benefit salmonid populations. However, common applications often fall short of producing the physical changes necessary to achieve the objectives, such as the formation of deep pools and cover. This study evaluated the hypothesis that wood jams constructed with whole-tree materials, high wood piece counts, and high wood volumes would be effective at creating instream geomorphic complexity, function, and aquatic habitat quality. Results were based on an evaluation of changes to surface sediment textures and channel morphology at eight constructed wood jams built with va...

Observations of Channel Change from Constructed Wood Jams on a Forested Gravel-Bed Stream

RiverRAT: Tools and Science for Assessing River Management and Restoration Projects

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