Advances in Urban Stream Restoration Practices

Dear Colleagues,

Globally as major urban centers expand land development into adjacent rural areas, rivers and streams can be severely impacted by hydromodification causing a loss of geomorphic stability, mesohabitat structure, riparian and stream biodiversity, water quality, and natural aesthetics and public health. Though stream restoration has been practiced for several decades now, specific techniques for the rehabilitation/revitalization of urban streams remain a challenge. Challenges include adequately addressing the spatially-varied and episodic land development within a watershed that create non-stationary in the geomorphic dominant discharge, civil infrastructure that constrain natural floodplain inundation and planform migration, fragmented drainage networks that reduce ecological connectivity and aquatic biota recolonization potential, and community differences in social views of natural resources that vary local objectives and priorities. Because of urban hydromodification, it is evident that stream rehabilitation projects need to be planned and prioritized within watersheds, and effectively integrated with stormwater management and flood control programs. Reasonable expectations for ecological functional lift and structural performance outcomes need to be objective-based and technically supported. This Special Issue of IJERPH aims to highlight advances in urban stream restoration practices, more appropriately termed rehabilitation, revitalization, or enhancement, that account for the unique challenges in urban riverine environments, including topics associated with pre- and post-project monitoring and assessment, planning, and project design and implementation/construction.

Prof. Dr. John S. Schwartz
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

1. If you are a potential author of this Special Issue; or 2. If you are interested in this Special Issue, but cannot submit a paper at this time; We encourage you to join our reviewer database at: https://susy.mdpi.com/volunteer_reviewer/step/1 When you help to review other manuscripts in this Special Issue, you will be offered a voucher of reduction from the APC for each valid review, which can be used immediately for your current submission, or for your future submissions to any MDPI journal.