Restoration planning
Constraints in identifying river rehabilitation project success
Little is known about the effectiveness of river restoration efforts despite the rapid increase in river restoration projects. Restoration outcomes are often not fully evaluated in terms of success or reasons for success or failure and this is, in part, due to weaknesses in the design and implementation stages of project planning for rehabilitation schemes. The review of concepts to measure the success of river restoration found that despite large economic investments in what has been called the “restoration economy”, many practitioners do not follow a systematic approach for planning restoration projects. As a result, many restoration efforts fail or fall short of their objectives, if objectives have been explicitly formulated. Some of the most common problems or reasons for failure include:
- Not addressing the root cause of habitat degradation
- Poor or improper project design, skipping key design steps
- Expectations not clearly defined with measurable objectives, therefore project success is difficult to evaluate through monitoring (Bernhardt et al. 2007)
- Not establishing reference condition benchmarks and success evaluation endpoints against which to measure success
- Failure to get adequate support from public and private organizations
- No or an inconsistent approach for sequencing or prioritizing projects (Roni et al. 2013)
- Inappropriate use of common restoration techniques because of lack of pre-planning (one size fits all) (Montgomery & Buffingtion 1997)
- Inadequate monitoring or appraisal of restoration projects to determine project effectiveness (Roni & Beechie 2013)
- Improper evaluation of project outcomes (real cost benefit analysis)
