Evaluating Stream Corridor Restoration Alternatives Using A Multi Criteria Decision Model

This document is a cooperative effort among fifteen Federal agencies and partners to produce a common reference on stream corridor restoration. It responds to a growing national and international interest in restoring stream corridors.

Restoration practitioners share simultaneously in the good fortune and responsibility of participating in a new endeavor - stepping beyond the current concept of natural resources conservation to a newer concept of restoring the living environment to an ecologically viable condition -to create places that improve rather than degrade over time. This document is a result of an unprecedented cooperative effort among fifteen Federal agencies and partners to produce a common reference on stream corridor restoration. It responds to a growing national and international public interest in restoring stream corridors. Increasingly, feature articles, case studies, and published papers focus on stream corridors as critical ecosystems in our living environment. This document encapsulates the rapidly expanding body of knowledge related to stream corridors and their restoration. It makes no endorsement of one particular approach to restoration over another; nor is it intended as a policy document of any participating Federal agency. It includes the full range of possibilities facing restoration practitioners, including no action or passive approaches, partial intervention for assisted recovery, and substantial intervention for managed recovery. The document encourages locally led, public involvement in restoration planning and implementation. The challenges in restoring thousands of miles of degraded stream corridors must involve government agencies, public and private landowners, permit holders, and local volunteer, civic, and conservation groups and individuals. This document takes a more encompassing approach to restoration than most other texts and manuals. It provides broadly applicable guidance for common elements of the restoration process, but also provides alternatives, and references to alternatives, which may be appropriate for site-specific restoration activities. Moreover, the document incorporates and reflects the experiences of the collaborating agencies and provides a common technical reference that can be used to restore systems based on experiences and basic scientific knowledge. As a general goal, this document promotes the use of ecological processes (physical, chemical, and biological) and minimally intrusive solutions to restore self-sustaining stream corridor functions. It provides information necessary to develop and select appropriate alter­ natives and solutions, and to make informed management decisions regarding valuable stream corridors and their watersheds. In addition, the document recognizes the complexity of most stream restoration work and promotes an integrated approach to restoration. It supports close cooperation among all participants in order to achieve a common set of objectives. The guidance contained in this document is applicable nationwide in both urban and rural settings. The material presented applies to a range of stream types, including intermittent and perennial streams of all sizes, and rivers too small to be navigable by barges. It offers a scientific perspective on restoration work ranging from simple to complex, with the level of detail increasing as the scale moves from the landscape to the stream reach.

Rivers are complex entities. In addition to being valuable wildlife habitats, they support human activities by providing water for human usage, renewable energy and convenient transportation. Rivers may also pose threats to riverine communities, in the form of floods and other natural or man-induced hazards. Contemporary societies recognize their responsibility in ensuring the sustainable use of rivers and in preserving river’s intrinsic ecological and landscape values. This obligation is often in conflict with riverine economical exploitation and with risk management concerns. As a discipline, Fluvial Hydraulics makes a significant contribution to the development of strategies for sustainable river use by providing new modelling tools and engineering techniques based on advances in phenomenological understanding and in computational modelling. River Flow 2006 comprises the Proceedings of the third edition of the International Conference on Fluvial Hydraulics, organized under the auspices of the Fluvial Hydraulics Section of the International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research (IAHR). The book covers issues such as river hydrodynamics, morphodynamics and sediment transport. Other contributions describe interdisciplinary approaches and experiences, particularly regarding interfacial activities involving environmental sciences and information technologies. River Flow 2006 contains the most recent theoretical accomplishments, numerical developments, experimental investigations and field studies in Fluvial Hydraulics. It is an excellent resource for researchers, civil and environmental engineers, and practitioners in river-related disciplines.

With $2 billion spent annually on stream restoration worldwide, there is a pressing need for guidance in this area, but until now, there was no comprehensive text on the subject. Filling that void, this unique text covers both new and existing information following a stepwise approach on theory, planning, implementation, and evaluation methods for the restoration of stream habitats. Comprehensively illustrated with case studies from around the world, Stream and Watershed Restoration provides a systematic approach to restoration programs suitable for graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses on stream or watershed restoration or as a reference for restoration practitioners and fisheries scientists. Part of the Advancing River Restoration and Management Series. Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/roni/streamrestoration.

This book examines the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, its varied uses, as well as its limitations for solving real-world scenarios. While the simplicity of the method compels users to find shortcuts to a real-world problem, it also leads to obtaining wrong results that do not represent reality. By alerting practitioners about the core necessities of a new scenario, this book helps solve this problem, as well as contribute to the field of Multicriteria Decision Making Method (MDCM). The authors use a demonstrative, rather than a theoretical approach, and examine 30 subjects that displays the shortcomings and drawbacks of the AHP. Each one is examined in-depth, discussed, debated and reasoned, using examples, some of them numeric. The book highlights the rationality and common sense of the subjects, and in most cases, validates the criticism by showing through numerical examples, the impossibility of the AHP method to address, let alone solve real-world projects. At the conclusion of each subject, a table is built comparing the similarities and differences between the opinions of the authors and other experts, along with the respective pros and cons.

Good agroecological practices are indispensable for the development of sustainable agriculture. In this book, principles, diversity and applications of agroecological practices for a range of systems are presented, transforming scientific research and participatory knowledge of production into practical application. It illustrates a broad range of research and teaching being used within the farming community to demonstrate best practice and current state-of-play within the field. Agroecological methods used in crop farming, grass-based livestock farming, fish production, and other complex farming systems are discussed. Conclusions are drawn from studies to provide an outlook on future trends of agroecological practices and on policies supporting implementation. Due to emphasis on real-life application, it is relevant not only to students of the agricultural sciences and public policy, but also to researchers, stakeholders and policy makers involved in the development of sustainable agriculture.