Professor Mary Power collects data from NCED's field site at Angelo Coast Range Reserve	Rendered Lidar data of the three tributaries to the Minnesota River: LeSuer River, Cobb River, and Maple River

Sediment transport | Channel dynamics | Floodplain dynamics | Ecosystem response  | Social context | Dam removal 

Our stream restoration group is conducting basic and applied research on issues important to stream restoration science. Our collective goal is to advance the science and practice of stream restoration. To do so, NCED is conducting and coordinating research and working with agency and industry partners to identify information needs, develop improved tools, and transfer this knowledge into practice. In this way, we will promote stream restoration practice from an approach based on analogy to one based on quantitative prediction.

Current stream restoration practice is based on analogy—a template is sought in a nearby or idealized channel that the designer judges to be suitable. But if a disturbed stream is adjusting to altered condition (e.g., altered hydrology, sediment inputs, riparian character) an appropriate template is unlikely to exist. In this scenario, an analogy approach cannot lead to true prediction. At present, there is no process-based, predictive alternative to analogy-based design because we lack a predictive understanding of physical and biological disturbance and recovery in stream channels.

At the core of our approach is the belief that a significant improvement in stream restoration science requires models and methods that integrate results across disciplines. Our research program involves biologists, civil engineers, ecologists, geochemists, geologists, hydrologists, and social scientists in a concerted effort to develop practical, predictive models of river systems.