Science-based restoration is fundamental to American Rivers’ approach to restoring healthy, functioning rivers. There are many good articles on restoration science topics. The list below should be considered a starting point. We recommend practitioners dig deeper into topics of interest through more robust scientific article databases and other bibliographies (some are listed below).

General River Restoration Science

Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership Species-Habitat Matrix Tool

DIGITALCOAST (NOAA Office for Coastal Management)

Ecological Restoration of Streams and Rivers: Shifting Strategies and Shifting Goals (Palmer, Hondula and Koch, Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 2014)

International Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration (Society for Ecological Restoration, 2nd edition 2019)

Standards for Ecologically Successful River Restoration (Palmer, et al., Journal of Applied Ecology 2005)

Stream Barrier Removal Monitoring Guide (Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment 2007)

The Active River Area: A Conservation Framework for Protecting Rivers and Streams (The Nature Conservancy 2008)

The Science and Practice of River Restoration (Wohl, Lane and Wilcox, Water Resources Research 2015)

Dam Removal Science

Aligning Dam Removal and Dam Safety: Comparing Policies and Institutions across States, Resources for the Future, 2020

American Rivers’ Dam Removal Database

Conceptualizing Ecological Responses to Dam Removal: If You Remove It, What’s To Come? (Bellmore, et al., BioScience 2019)

Dams and Dam Removals in the United States, Resources for the Future, 2020

Dam Removal: Synthesis of Ecological and Physical Responses (USGS Powell Center Working Group)

Geomorphic Responses to Dam Removal in the United States—A Two Decade Perspective (Major et al. 2017)

National Inventory of Dams

Status and Trends of Dam Removal Research in the United States (Bellmore, et al., WIREs Water 2017)

U.S. Geological Survey Dam Removal Information Portal (DRIP)

Floodplain Restoration Science

ASFPM Flood Science Center (Association of State Floodplain Managers)

FEMA Flood Map Service Center

Natural and Beneficial Floodplain Functions: Floodplain Management— More than Flood Loss Reduction (Association of State Floodplain Managers)

Reconnecting Rivers to Floodplains: Returning Natural Functions to Restore Rivers and Benefit Communities (Loos and Shader 2016)

Economics of River Restoration

An Economic Analysis of Improved Road Stream Crossings (The Nature Conservancy)

Socioeconomic Benefits of Habitat Restoration (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2017)

The Economic Value of Riparian Buffers (American Rivers)

Dam Removal: Case Studies on the Fiscal, Economic, Social, and Environmental Benefits of Dam Removal (Headwaters Economics)