Evaluating Natural Channel Design Performance in Southern Ontario

Natural channel design practices are continually evolving, but monitoring the performance and success of these urban river engineering projects is often limited to sparse point measurements of streamflow, stream morphology, and species inventories during the 2 – 5 years following construction. The result is relatively few data on the overall performance of natural channel design projects, both in terms of the original project goals and geomorphic function (no net erosion and deposition). Advances in survey technologies (e.g., Mobile Laser Scanning) allow high-resolution topographic data to be collected quickly in the field, which has the potential to improve both the quality of data collected as well as our overall understanding of how natural channel designs function geomorphically post-construction. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Peter Ashmore

Student:

Sarah Peirce

Partner:

Matrix Solutions Inc.

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Natural resources

University:

Program: