We’ve seen what you should do in terms of river restoration in our last post. Now, what shouldn’t you do? What are the things that cause river restoration schemes to fail?

DON’T neglect the three key components: form, process and materials. Intrinsically linked, these three components determine the way rivers work and should be ever-present in your thoughts on river restoration. Do you want shallow sloping river banks to encourage emergent vegetation and berm creation (form), or do you need fast flows and surface roughness to increase aeration and dissolved oxygen content (process)? In both cases you’ll have to think about the type of substrate you’ll need (materials); fine sediment for berm creation and gravel sediment for riffle creation.

DON’T forget it’s about more than just geomorphology. Water chemistry, seed banks, longitudinal connectivity, allocthononous nutrient inputs, diffuse pollution sources and ecological elements such as competition, succession and behaviour will…