Decision Support Guide for Reducing Downstream Sedimentation with Low Tech Process Based Restoration

Low-Tech Process-based Restoration (LTPBR) is a suite of interventions used to accomplish a broad set of ecosystem goals: floodplain reconnection, riparian vegetation recovery, beaver recolonization, and more. It is increasingly being used as a tool to protect downstream waterways from sedimentation (erosion and deposition of sediment), but there are few resources available to guide early decision-making as to whether that is an appropriate use. This guide addresses that need by answering one question: is LTPBR likely to reduce downstream sedimentation from your site? By walking LTPBR project sponsors and managers through a series of screening questions related to a site, this guide links LTPBR actions with their short and long-term effectiveness in achieving sediment related outcomes. Users will be able to linking restoration actions with geomorphic context and sedimentation processes, coming away with a better understanding of where and how LTPBR can address sedimentation and its associated uncertainty.