5-day shortcourse: "River Restoration: Fluvial-Geomorphic and Ecological Processes"

The course emphasizes understanding geomorphic process as a sound basis for planning and designing river restoration projects and programs. It covers general principles and case studies from a wide range of environments, with specific applications and field visits to Mediterranean and mountain environments. The course and course materials are in English, but draw heavily on river restoration and management experiences in France and elsewhere in the EU, complemented by experiences in North America.

The innovative European Union legislation, the Water Framework Directive was based in part on river-basin management practices underway in France since the 1960s. The shortcourse is held near rivers in which managers have undertaken innovative environmental management practices, e.g., to restore sediment loads, provide a “space of liberty” (floodway or channel migration corridor) for rivers, restore former channel habitats, increase minimum discharge downstream of dams, remove dikes and riprap bank protection, and preserve riparian forests. There are tremendous opportunities to learn from comparing experiences implementing the WFD in Europe with the longer and more extensive experience in river restoration in North America.  

The shortcourse features detailed analysis of lessons learned from comprehensive programs to restore more natural flow regimes on the Colorado, Trinity, San Joaquin, and Truckee rivers in western North America, to restore sediment loads on the Sacramento River system, the Rhine and Drome, and to restore floodplain connectivity and former channel habitats along the Rhine, Rhone, Ain, Missouri, and Sacramento rivers. The course also addresses key issues in managing delta environments starved of sediment by upstream reservoirs, reviewing ongoing planning to restore sediment delivery to combat subsidence in the Mississippi Delta. The course emphasizes learning opportunities from completed projects and programs through systematic post-project appraisal, providing critical data for informing adaptive management programs, assessing economic benefits of river restoration programs, and assessing the ecological status of rivers under the WFD.  The innovative 10-year monitoring programs implemented by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation are reviewed, along with consideration of essential questions to be addressed in assessing restoration project performance.  Recent experiences in river restoration in Europe and North America provide many opportunities to learn from the complementary nature of restoration approaches and the experiences to date.