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CRC FOR CATCHMENT HYDROLOGY RESEARCH TIMELINE

 

CURRENT RESEARCH PROGRAMS

Program 6: River Restoration
Program Leader: Dr Michael Stewardson, The University of Melbourne.

Program Projects

Click here for the current list of Projects for this Program (2003-2006)

Click here for completed Projects and their outcomes for this Program (1999-2002)


Program Overview

Detailed Information about current projects in this program is available here

River restoration (used synonymously with rehabilitation) aims to return natural, environmental values to streams. There is tremendous enthusiasm to rehabilitate Australian streams, with at least $50 million being spent on this activity in Australia each year. The Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Catchment Hydrology's River Restoration research program aims to provide stream managers with tools, and with understanding of stream processes, that will lead to more effective expenditure on restoration, and ultimately, healthier streams.

Stream health is often measured in terms of the organisms that live in streams, but the health of these organisms is often the result of physical processes. Thus, the strength that the CRC brings to stream restoration is in disciplines that relate to the physical processes: hydrology, hydraulics and geomorphology.

In 1999, during the initial round of the CRC for Catchment Hydrology, we completed a National Stream Rehabilitation Manual in cooperation with the Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation. Volume One of the manual described a planning procedure for river restoration and Volume Two detailed a set of tools for waterway managers (the manual is available through CanPrint, phone 02 6295 4444, email lwa@canprint.com.au or it can be downloaded from http://www.rivers.gov.au). The current CRC’s River Restoration research program, described on these pages, aims to address some of the knowledge gaps identified in that manual in
preparation for an updated edition.

As part of establishing the current CRC, land and water managers around Australia identified
three priority areas for river restoration research:

  1. In Australia, there has been almost no evaluation of either procedures for stream rehabilitation, or of the success of restoration projects themselves. The CRC’s River Restoration Program has four projects designed to evaluate stream restoration planning and application (Projects 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4)
  2. There is insufficient understanding of how key river management tools impact on rivers. Examples include fishway design (Project 6.5), scour around objects in streams (Project 6.6) and environmental flow releases (Project 6.7)
  3. Understanding the process of the natural recovery of streams (without intervention) is a foundation of efficient and effective river restoration. This area of research is incorporated into the CRC’s Land-use Impacts on Rivers Program; Project 2.1 ‘Sediment movement, physical habitat and water quality in large river systems’. A separate information sheet on this project
    is available.

The links below describe the seven research projects under the CRC’s River Restoration Program. For more information, contact the Project Leaders listed after each section or contact the Program Leader:

Dr Michael Stewardson

CRC for Catchment Hydrology
School of Anthropology, Geography & Environmental Studies
The University of Melbourne Vic 3010
Australia

Tel: (03) 8344 7733
imjstew@unimelb.edu.au

Predicting Catchment Behaviour
Land-use Impacts on Rivers
Sustainable Water Allocation
Urban Stormwater Quality
Climate Variability
River Restoration