Setting Stream Restoration Priorities for the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area

Increasingly, the problem of urban sprawl and land use management is becoming central to the maintenance of stream resources within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area (PMA). Within the PMA, large tracts of undeveloped land and abandoned farmland are being transformed into vast suburban residential communities. This process has resulted in, to varying degrees and on various time scales, geomorphic instability and habitat loss with PMA streams on the urban periphery. Concurrently, severely impacted stream systems in the urban core areas remain in need of restoration. At present, the management of stream resources within the PMA is performed by a large, loosely connected group of non-profit groups, municipalities, and county-, regional-, and state-level authorities. Restoration activities are selected and implemented largely as opportunities arise. Although many restoration efforts within the PMA have been organized at the watershed-scale and have benefited from the development of watershed management plans that set priorities for management activities, efforts to improve stream quality could greatly benefit from the development of a system for prioritizing stream restoration methods and targets throughout the PMA.