Stream restoration
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The science and practice of river restoration Open
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 expand…
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Principles for urban stormwater management to protect stream ecosystems Open
Urban stormwater runoff is a critical source of degradation to stream ecosystems globally. Despite broad appreciation by stream ecologists of negative effects of stormwater runoff, stormwater management objectives still typically center on…
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Identifying priority sites for low impact development (LID) in a mixed-use watershed Open
Low impact development (LID), a comprehensive land use planning and design approach with the goal of mitigating land development impacts to the environment, is increasingly being touted as an effective approach to lessen runoff and polluta…
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Nutrient Retention in Restored Streams and Rivers: A Global Review and Synthesis Open
Excess nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from human activities have contributed to degradation of coastal waters globally. A growing body of work suggests that hydrologically restoring streams and rivers in agricultural and urban watersheds …
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Biomic river restoration: A new focus for river management Open
River management based solely on physical science has proven to be unsustainable and unsuccessful, evidenced by the fact that the problems this approach intended to solve (e.g., flood hazards, water scarcity, and channel instability) have …
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Alteration of stream temperature by natural and artificial beaver dams Open
Beaver are an integral component of hydrologic, geomorphic, and biotic processes within North American stream systems, and their propensity to build dams alters stream and riparian structure and function to the benefit of many aquatic and …
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The stream evolution triangle: Integrating geology, hydrology, and biology Open
The foundations of river restoration science rest comfortably in the fields of geology, hydrology, and engineering, and yet, the impetus for many, if not most, stream restoration projects is biological recovery. Although Lane's stream bala…
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Impacts of beaver dams on hydrologic and temperature regimes in a mountain stream Open
Beaver dams affect hydrologic processes, channel complexity, and stream temperature in part by inundating riparian areas, influencing groundwater–surface water interactions, and changing fluvial processes within stream systems. We explored…
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Contrasting the roles of section length and instream habitat enhancement for river restoration success: a field study of 20 European restoration projects Open
Summary Restoration of river hydromorphology often has limited detected effects on river biota. One frequently discussed reason is that the restored river length is insufficient to allow populations to develop and give the room for geomorp…
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The current state of the use of large wood in river restoration and management Open
Trees fall naturally into rivers generating flow heterogeneity, inducing geomorphological features, and creating habitats for biota. Wood is increasingly used in restoration projects and the potential of wood acting as leaky barriers to de…
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Restoring a stream through retention of urban stormwater runoff: a catchment-scale experiment in a social–ecological system Open
Restoration of ecological structure and function of urban streams probably requires catchment-scale modification of drainage infrastructure, but such catchment-scale restoration attempts and their assessment are rare. They require stream e…
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Over forty years of lowland stream restoration: Lessons learned? Open
Stream restoration efforts have increased, but the success rate is still rather low. The underlying reasons for these unsuccessful restoration efforts remain inconclusive and need urgent clarification. Therefore, the aim of the present stu…
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How network structure can affect nitrogen removal by streams Open
Streams and rivers can be highly reactive sites for nitrogen (N) transformation and removal. Empirical and model‐based research show how location in a stream network affects rates of N removal. Because the structure of stream networks can …
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Achieving Successful River Restoration in Dense Urban Areas: Lessons from Taiwan Open
A paradigm shift in river management practice is underway, from a hard engineering-dominated emphasis that endeavours to control water, to a multi-functionality-framed approach that strives to restore a river’s ecology, scenery and ecosyst…
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Evaluating good-practice cases for river restoration across Europe: context, methodological framework, selected results and recommendations Open
This introductory paper presents 20 river restoration cases throughout Europe that were investigated in the EU-funded research project REFORM. In the following, this special issue provides seven specific papers that highlight and discuss t…
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Evaluating Stream Restoration Projects: What Do We Learn from Monitoring? Open
Two decades since calls for stream restoration projects to be scientifically assessed, most projects are still unevaluated, and conducted evaluations yield ambiguous results. Even after these decades of investigation, do we know how to def…
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The influence of floodplain restoration on flow and sediment dynamics in an urban river Open
A study of floodplain sedimentation on a recently restored floodplain is presented. This study uses a two‐dimensional hydro‐morphodynamic model for predicting flow and suspended‐sediment dynamics in the downstream of Johnson Creek, the Eas…
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Making Stream Restoration More Sustainable: A Geomorphically, Ecologically, and Socioeconomically Principled Approach to Bridge the Practice with the Science Open
Despite large advances in the state of the science of stream ecology and river mechanics, the practitioner-driven field of stream restoration remains plagued by narrowly focused projects that sometimes even fail to improve aquatic habitat …
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A process‐based approach to restoring depositional river valleys to Stage 0, an anastomosing channel network Open
Stream restoration approaches most often quantify habitat degradation, and therefore recovery objectives, on aquatic habitat metrics based on a narrow range of species needs (e.g., salmon and trout), as well as channel evolution models and…
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Modeling intrinsic potential for beaver (Castor canadensis) habitat to inform restoration and climate change adaptation Open
Through their dam-building activities and subsequent water storage, beaver have the potential to restore riparian ecosystems and offset some of the predicted effects of climate change by modulating streamflow. Thus, it is not surprising th…
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Urban stream renovation: incorporating societal objectives to achieve ecological improvements Open
Pervasive human impacts on urban streams make restoration to predisturbance conditions unlikely. The effective- ness of ecologically focused restoration approaches typically is limited in urban settings because of the use of a reference-co…
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Legacy effects of loss of beavers in the continental United States Open
Through their modifications of channels and floodplains, beavers are a premier example of ecosystem engineers. Historical and stratigraphic records suggest that hundreds of millions of beavers once modified small to medium rivers throughou…
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Response of fish assemblages to hydromorphological restoration in central and northern European rivers Open
European rivers are highly degraded and restoration efforts are becoming more frequent. However, only few restoration projects have been rigorously evaluated so far. We investigated the response of fish assemblages to hydromorphological re…
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Impacts of stream riparian buffer land use on water temperature and food availability for fish Open
Restoration of degraded freshwater ecosystems has gained considerable attention in the USA over the past decades. However, most projects focus almost entirely on the restoration of physical habitat or specific water quality parameters, whi…
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Momentum and Energy Predict the Backwater Rise Generated by a Large Wood Jam Open
Wood reintroduction is now considered an important aspect of stream restoration, due to ecohydraulic benefits associated with wood presence. Channel‐spanning wood jams create an upstream backwater, increasing flow heterogeneity, sediment d…
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Habitat development and species arrival drive succession of the benthic invertebrate community in restored urban streams Open
Background Urban streams are characterised by species-poor and frequently disturbed communities. The recovery of heavily polluted urban streams is challenging but the simple community structure makes recolonisation patterns more transparen…
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Coupled Hydrological/Hydraulic Modelling of River Restoration Impacts and Floodplain Hydrodynamics Open
Channelization and embankment of rivers has led to major ecological degradation of aquatic habitats worldwide. River restoration can be used to restore favourable hydrological conditions for target species or processes. However, the effect…
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Monitoring the effectiveness of floodplain habitat restoration: A review of methods and recommendations for future monitoring Open
Floodplains are some of the most ecologically important and human‐impacted habitats throughout the world. Large efforts are underway in North America, Europe, Australia, and elsewhere to restore floodplain habitats, not only to increase fi…
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Hierarchical climate-driven dynamics of the active channel length in temporary streams Open
Looking across a landscape, river networks appear deceptively static. However, flowing streams expand and contract following ever-changing hydrological conditions of the surrounding environment. Despite the ecological and biogeochemical va…
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UAV Monitoring of Stream Restorations Open
This study examines the potential and limits of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) applicability for the monitoring of stream restoration in an urban environment. UAV imaging was used for long-term post-restoration monitoring of an urban …