Restoration of Rivers and Wetlands: Advancing the State of Hydrologic Design

Hydrologic restoration aims to change the water regime in degraded areas to make the conditions experienced by the biological and physical systems more similar to those present before the degradation occurred. In order to determine reasonable goals or evaluate potential projects a non-traditional engineering design approach must be used. Continuous hydrologic modeling, using models such as HSPF, offers the potential to design and evaluate restoration projects based upon the goals of the project, expressed in terms of durations, magnitudes and seasonality of streamflows or water levels. The modeling effort can provide valuable information throughout the restoration process and has been used in applications of various scales, restoration goals and degrading processes. Two projects in Wisconsin and one in Washington are outlined here.