Some interesting student papers, mostly, I think, from Matt Kondolf's students at UC-Berkeley. As I've mentioned before, I highly recommend Elizabeth Suddith's site for restoration news, especially if you've not drunk the classification cookbook Kool-aid.
Here's a link to some very interesting papers by her and colleagues at Duke and elsewhere--the page and links and citations are about as rich as you could get for recent river restoration research. An unsurprising quote from the abstract:
According to project managers, ecological degradation typically motivated restoration projects, but post-project appearance and positive public opinion were the most commonly used metrics of success. Less than half of all projects set measurable objectives for their projects, but nearly two-thirds of all interviewees felt that their projects had been "completely successful."
When I mention Kool-aid, I like to poke around the internets a bit and see what those folks are doing--there's always something fun, with lots of photos (appearance is important, see above).
Today I stumbled on a real gem--a Master's project (I think) from the University of Oklahoma's CE department. OK, this guy has not apparently drunk the Kool-aid, but we'll change the subject a bit. He did a study of tire revetments as bank protection tools. And not for the 1960's-era Corps of Engineers, but in 1999! And he was able to find 48 existing installations in Oklahoma! Study here. A couple of figures below. I'm speechless.
Labels: Elizabeth Suddith, Matt Kondolf, restoration, university of california berkley
