Research articleHydro-morphological parameters generate lifespan maps for stream restoration management
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Throughout history, wide-ranging river rectifications and monotone stream patterns have been engineered for economic benefits, such as the conversion of the Rhine River into a navigable channel (Tulla, 1812). Today, many eco-morphological problems resulting from stream rectification are considered serious impacts on stream ecology, ecosystem services, and the broader economy (e.g., devastating floods) (Blackbourn, 2006; Surian and Rinaldi, 2003). Consequently, governments write laws, issue directives, and fund voluntary actions involving stream restoration and habitat enhancement (e.g., the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act 1969; Canadian Environmental Protection Act 1999; European Water Framework Directive 2000, Wohl et al. (2015) summarised the state of science and practice of stream restoration in a review of small, medium and large rivers. They identified useful paradigms for the planning of habitat enhancement projects. Technical features of stream restoration were documented in several studies (e.g., Bernhardt et al., 2005; Morandi et al., 2014; Wohl et al., 2015) and a multitude of assessment strategies are available (e.g., Feio et al., 2016; Rinaldi et al., 2017).
Still, Wohl et al. (2015) legitimately asked, “How do we approach river restoration?” A generalised and quantitative answer to that question is not yet available, especially from a technical point of view. In addition to the scientific underpinnings, decision makers require accountability of the lifespan of restoration features for prioritising particularly relevant projects. Society is spending a lot of money to build projects, but too little effort has gone into ascertaining the longevity of such investments.
This study uses a large dataset from California's well-documented lower Yuba River (e.g., Barker et al., 2018; Pasternack and Wyrick, 2017) to create lifespan maps for quantifying the lifetime of stream restoration features. The term “feature” denotes any one specific technical component to achieve some beneficial stream restoration on a reach scale (10–100 times the channel width, Pasternack and Wyrick, 2017). An example of a feature is “vegetation planting” to improve habitat quality and increase channel stability.
A comprehensive and interdisciplinary literature review identifies relevant features and the fundamental data necessary for assessing their lifespans. Moreover, the literature review identifies parameter-related survival thresholds, where constructive details are listed in the supplemental material. Based on the parameter thresholds, we introduce a procedure for deriving lifespan maps and then test that approach using a proposed habitat enhancement framework for the lower Yuba River.
Section snippets
Approach
Wohl et al. (2015) identify ten common goals of river restoration on several scales, which are achieved by applying stream restoration features. We consider only constructive features without taking into account requirements such as “land acquisition”. Moreover, we exclude “dam removal” because of the complexity and involvement of factors that cannot be assessed with hydrodynamic modelling and topographic change measurements (O'Connor et al., 2015; Foley et al., 2017). For example, dams often
Lifespan maps
The application of the threshold values from Tab. 4 to the 2D hydrodynamic model output combined with the application of Eqs. (1), (2), present grain sizes, the morphological unit and terrain confinement delineation leads to the lifespan maps shown in Fig. 3. These lifespan maps show the lower Yuba River's Lower Gift Edge Bar between river kilometres 25.0 and 27.3. The lifespans are stated in years with the exemption of berm setback (Fig. 3b) and side cavities (Fig. 3g) delineation, which
Interpretation of lifespan maps
Beyond the estimated feature sustainability in years, lifespan maps indicate more generally, where the application of particular features could be put into practice successfully.
Landscape fill and scour maps can indicate disconnected zones that are omitted by morphological river activity, and therefore, these maps indicate where bar and floodplain grading is reasonable rather than indicating the lifespan of grading features.
Increasing the available habitat through berm setback (river widening)
Conclusions
Lifespan maps are an important tool for vetting ecological relevance against physical stability in stream restoration and habitat enhancement projects.
In agreement with the existing semantic framework of stream restoration goals, we parametrized and analysed the expected lifespans of restoration features at the Yuba River, California. The quantifiable parameters constitute, “survival thresholds” that determine the feature's lifespans based on their physical stability. A comprehensive
Acknowledgement
This work is funded by the Yuba Water Agency (Marysville, California, USA; (Award #201016094 and Award #10446)). This project was also supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project number CA-D-LAW-7034-H. We thank Pete Moniz for his explanations regarding the creation of habitat suitability criteria maps. Special thanks goes to Lukas Schmocker, Isabella Schalko, Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva, Carmelo Juez, Fabian Friedl and John Stella for their inputs regarding
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