New tools developed to help restore our rivers

Abstract

Freshwater ecosystems New tools developed to help restore our rivers It began as a short, two-metre-deep erosion gulley in the rivercourse, after a small dam for watering horses was washed away during a flood in 2003. By 2015, the gulley had extended almost a kilometre upstream and deepened to 13 min places, destroying a stretch of palmiet wetland up to 600 m long and 100 m wide. The sediment washed away had smothered another section of the wetland downstream and created temporary islands that diverted flow into the river bank, causing further erosion and threatening the adjacent farmland. This disturbing account is one of 24 case studies included in the River Rehabilitation Manual, the final output of a WRC-funded project to develop national guidelines for river rehabilitation. The Manual is made up of three separate volumes, comprising the Guidelines themselves, a Technical Manual and the Case Studies.

Authors

Categories