Streams
From Science to Restoration
The goal of our Streams research is to advance the science and practice of stream restoration by conducting and coordinating research and by working with agency and industry partners to identify information needs, develop improved tools, and transfer this knowledge into practice. We aim to promote a transition in restoration practice from an approach based on single-disciplinary analogy to one based on multidisciplinary quantitative prediction. We plan to implement this transformation by defining and promoting an objectives-driven approach to restoration, emphasizing quantitative objectives and predictive design and supporting explicit trade-off evaluation and decision analysis.
At the core of our approach is the belief that a significant improvement in stream restoration science requires models and methods that integrate results across disciplines. Our research program involves biologists, civil engineers, ecologists, geochemists, geologists, hydrologists, and social scientists in a concerted effort to develop practical, predictive models of river systems.
NCED Streams field sites and experimental facilities:
For more information on NCED Streams research, contact:
Daniel W. Baker, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD 21218
410-516-4255
Featured Stories:
How do in-stream structures affect flow?
This past May, NCED Outdoor StreamLab (OSL) Research Program Coordinator Jessica Kozarek and a team of five student interns hauled heavy rocks into the Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory’s Outdoor StreamLab. One by one the rocks were deposited in the stream channel as Kozarek and the interns dutifully erected three sets of structures commonly used in stream restoration projects. In this case however, the structures were not intended to remedy bank erosion or improve deteriorating fish habitat.
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Journal of Hydraulic Engineering special issue on stream restoration available
On November 15, the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering published a special issue on stream restoration. Edited by NCED PI Fotis Sotiropoulos and Virginia Tech professor Panayiotis Diplas, the issue contains ten papers that cover topics as diversse as in-stream structures and their potential effects on river behavior; flow-through vegetation hydrodynamics and nutrient uptake in streams; and combined field and numerical studies that employ computational fluid dynamical tools for modeling aspects of stream behavior.
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Stream Restoration Symposium Arrives in Upper Midwest
NCED is a proud sponsor of the inaugural Upper Midwest Stream Restoration Symposium (UMSRS). The inaugural UMSRS will bring together leading national and regional stream restoration practitioners for presentations and discussions on important regional stream and river restoration issues. This symposium is designed to foster exchange, conversation, and new collaborations among restoration practitioners in the upper Midwest. UMSRS organizers are now accepting abstracts for poster and oral presentations. Click here for more information.
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The Sisyphean sediment experiment
“Quite a Sisyphean activity isn’t it?” asked NCED PI Peter Wilcock after describing PhD student Chuck Podolak’s current experimental work at Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL). It was a question asked with good reason. By early March, Podolak, with help from SAFL staff and researchers, will have spent several days removing sediment from the bottom of an indoor 9 ft x 250 ft x 6 ft flume (SAFL’s “main channel” facility), shoveling tons (literally) of it back into the flume, collecting it at the flume’s mouth, and adding it to the channel again. Far from futile however, the activity will help Podolak investigate what happens to the topography of a gravel-bedded river when a lot of sand and gravel are added.
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NCED Teams With MPCA to Release Report on Minnesota River Basin Turbidity TMDL
Many of the streams and rivers in the Minnesota River watershed currently exhibit high levels of turbidity, which impairs the ecosystem of the Minnesota River, as well as that of the Mississippi River and Lake Pepin. To address the issue, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is developing a turbidity Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirement for the Minnesota River Basin, which will guide management decisions throughout the basin.
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