River Restoration

Iowa’s River Restoration Toolbox is a series of best management practices developed to assist designers in stream stabilization and restoration projects in Iowa with proven techniques with emphasis on incorporating natural materials, such as logs, stone, and live plantings. Among the dozens of techniques described in the Toolbox are longitudinal peaked stone toe protection, j-hook vanes, rock arch rapids, oxbows, riparian corridor restorations, and tree/shrub plantings. It delivers a consistent, relevant assessment method and reviewable design checklists to aid decision making among multidisciplinary teams (i.e. – restoration practitioner, engineer, project manager, funder, biologist, etc.). The toolbox also provides detailed drawings and specification requirements to make natural stabilization projects more biddable.

River Restoration Toolbox, An Introduction

Step 1: Assessing Your Stream Reach and Making Decisions

Understanding driving factors that cause your unstable stream segment to erode or damage infrastructure prior to jumping to solutions leads to stable, cost-effective solutions. Misidentified solutions cause future instabilities in the dynamic stream setting, leading to costly repairs and unintended damage. Begin by entering desktop and field-collected survey data, using illustrations and instructions. This tool helps the user understand some of the key problems. It then points to multiple practices and techniques that may be appropriate for selection by the project team. A review checklist for documentation helps design team, project owners, funders, and regulators communicate in consistent ways.

Iowa Rivers BMP Decision Tool .xlsm 

View 1: Flow Regime
View 2: Riparian Diagram
View 3: Survey Figure
View 4: Sinuosity
View 5: Longitudinal Profile
View 6: Incision Ratio
View 7: Facet Terminology
View 8: Cross Section Geometry
View 9: Entrenchment Ratio
View 10: Meander Terminology
View 11: Pebble Counts
View 12: Rosgen Stream Types
View 13: Bed vs Bank
View 14: Meander Patterns
View 15: Concerns
View 16: Bar Types
View 17: Headcut
View 18: Channel Evolution Model
View 19: Habitat Features
View 20: BEHI Variables
 View 21: Lateral Erosion
View 22: Quantification of Riparian Vegetation

Step 2: The Practice Guide

Once a project’s direction is determined, thorough design and proper contractor execution are the keys for project stability. The practice guide details important dimensional ranges, computations, and specification requirements to help define quality assurance measures. Most designs will incorporate techniques from multiple practices. Typical drawings clarify the more structural practices, and AutoCAD files are supplied as a starting point to adapt structures to project sites. Note that the glossaries at the end define terms used throughout the practice guide and supply equations or methodologies used for verifying stable design conditions. Before applying a technique, please make sure to read the introductory section of each practice guide for background factors common to all techniques within the chapter.

• Practice Guide 1: Grade Control
• Practice Guide 1: Grade Control AutoCAD Technique Files *.zip 
• Practice Guide 2: Vegetative Restoration
• Practice Guide 2: Vegetative Restoration AutoCAD Technique Files *.zip
• Practice Guide 2: Iowa Riverside Plant Selection Guide
• Practice Guide 3: Riparian Buffering
• Practice Guide 4: Floodplain Restoration
• Practice Guide 4: Floodplain Restoration, AutoCAD Technique Files *.zip
• Practice Guide 5: Geomorphic Channel Design
• Practice Guide 5: Geomorphic Design, Data and Analysis *.xltm
• Practice Guide 5: Compare Existing, Reference, and Design Conditions *.xltm
  • Using the Geomorphic Channel Design practice requires additional survey, assessment, and a comparable reference reach. The copyrighted data entry forms are provided with permission of Wildland Hydrology.
• Practice Guide 6: Aquatic Habitat/Cover Features
• Practice Guide 6: Aquatic Habitat/Cover, AutoCAD Technique Files *.zip
• Practice Guide 7: Streambank Toe Protection/Stabilization
• Practice Guide 7: Streambank Toe Protection/Stabilization, AutoCAD Technique Files *.zip
• Practice Guide 8: Channel Defining Structures
• Practice Guide 8: AutoCAD Technique Files *.zip
• Practice Guide 9: Culvert Adjustment
• Practice Guide 9: AutoCAD Technique Files *.zip
• Practice Guide 10: Dam Mitigation
• Glossary of Terms
• Glossary of Equations and Computations

Supplemental Tools and Techniques

Several resources are available now, or in development, to help consultants, public land managers, and individual landowners who want to restore functions of rivers and according to their goals. Check back as new items are added.

Iowa Riverside Plant Selection

Appropriate native plantings are a key to successful river restoration projects. The Iowa Riverside Plant Selection Tool is organized by various design scenarios for ease of use.

Cross Section Tool

LiDAR-based cross sections can easily be drawn across stream valleys to provide crucial information for stream projects involving restoration, permitting, and mitigation. Stationed data tables can be exported to use in a variety of software applications for analysis. The Iowa Elevation Tool  is particularly useful for identifying low floodplain elevations, valley characteristics, and bank full width in a stream segment. Note that LiDAR data does not include points below the water surface.