Survey & monitoring

As part of the STREAM river restoration work, a programme of survey and monitoring will be done to evaluate how successful the restoration has been, and to identify any problems with the restoration techniques used.

Monitoring and evaluation requires the collection, management and analysis of relevant information, of attributes of the physical and biological environment prior to and after the restoration works. At the simplest levels this may be repeat photographic monitoring but may extend to the repeat measurements of the target species and characteristics of the river that the restoration programme is seeking to enhance.

Monitoring programme

Survey River survey

All six river restoration sites will be monitored pre and post restoration. The surveys will be used to document the restoration works and to identify their possible influence on physical habitat and ecology on the sites.

Rapid assessment will be undertaken at all sites, and will consist of the following reach-scale mapping techniques:

  • Physical Biotope Mapping and Fluvial Audit
  • River Corridor Survey
  • Repeat Fixed Point Photography

In addition to the reach scale mapping techniques, further detailed assessments will be undertaken at 2 sites plus 2 control sites, and will consist of:

  • Channel cross-section survey
  • Physical habitat survey and depth, velocity and substrate measurements.
  • Detailed macrophyte survey
  • Fisheries survey

The STREAM project approach to monitoring is described in a protocol which can be downloaded here:

River Restoration Centre Audit

The River Restoration Centre will carry out an audit of all the river restoration projects pre, during and post restoration. The works will be assessed against their design objectives using the expert judgement and the experience of the River Restoration Centre.

This assessment will compare the works on the ground and the monitoring programme results with findings from other projects. It will assess if additional benefit, over and above that originally desired, has been gained and consider the future development of the sites.

The RRC will consider the monitoring results in the context of its expertise and experience of river restoration projects throughout the UK to predict the long-term outcomes at each site. This assessment will provide a summary of success and failure, and importantly, comment on longer term predicted success.