GEOS 11
River Restoration in Practice Winter 2019

This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

River restoration is a growing billion-dollar international industry. Since the environmental movement began in the 1960s and 1970s, renewed interest in the beauty and benefits of healthy streams has resulted in increased research, funding, and applied restoration of rivers, streams, wetlands, and riparian corridors. The restoration of rivers and streams comes in many different forms including dam removal and in-channel habitat restoration. In this course, we’ll learn about the history of restoration and the basics of fluvial geomorphology and hydrology. We will gain applied knowledge and experience with the practice of restoration through a combination of lectures, classroom exercises, conversations with restoration advocates and practitioners, field trips and field data collection. A final practicum will involve the design of a restoration project. The course will generally be structured around three sections: Science: Week 1 will primarily involve lectures and classroom exercises and discussion of the literature, learning about the history and evolution of river restoration as well as the basics of the science that drives restoration. Data Collection and Analysis: Week 2 will focus on data collection and analysis typically required for river restoration projects. This will include topographic surveying, geomorphic and habitat mapping, pebble counts, stream discharge measurements, GIS mapping, and hydraulic modeling. Intensive Practicum: Small groups of students will be given a real restoration project example to research, analyze, and design. This practicum will include data collection, GIS analysis, flow modeling, and design plan sheets describing the restoration plan. The class will meet on average 8 hours per week and will include up to 3 day-long field trips. Students should expect to be outside for portions of the day collecting field data in/near rivers in winter conditions. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Nick Nelson is a fluvial geomorphologist and regional director for Inter-Fluve, a river and wetland restoration company. He has assessed hundreds of miles of river and designed/managed the removal of more than a dozen dams in New England. He has lectured at the University of MN, Tufts University, University of TN, and currently teaches courses at Northeastern University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
The Class: Format: afternoons
Limit: 15
Grading: pass/fail only
Requirements/Evaluation: students will be evaluated based on their final group design submittal
Prerequisites: none, though some background in GIS and a scientific field (geology, biology, ecology, etc.) will be useful
Enrollment Preferences: background in scientific fields of study
Materials/Lab Fee: $16
Attributes: EXPE Experiential Education Courses

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