River restoration contributes to flood risk management by supporting the natural capacity of rivers to retain water. As flood risk consists of damage times occurrence, flood risk management needs to reduce either the damage, or the likelihood of floods to occur, or both. River restoration reduces the likelihood of high water levels, and improves the natural functions of the river at same time.
In a natural river system a river spreads water beyond its banks and over extended areas of a floodplain during periods of high water. In order to protect property and contain waters, the classic flood risk management approach is to constrain watercourses with rivers being straightened and building dykes to increase discharge capacity, dredging to deepen channels, and building reservoirs and artificial retention areas to store excess waters.
While this generally reduces the likelihood of flooding, in the event of extremely high waters it increases the amount of damage if the engineered system is overwhelmed or fails. Without natural features such as wetlands and meanders, excess waters cannot be absorbed. Any breach will release an enormous amount of water, with potentially catastrophic consequences. Continuously reinforcing and building higher dykes cannot overcome this weakness, and is a very expensive option. Historically, engineering solutions upstream have created peak flows downstream, leading to more engineering. Moreover, climate change scenarios predict more extreme weather events and higher sea levels. A new approach is needed.
Advantages
By re-connecting brooks, streams and rivers to floodplains, former meanders and other natural storage areas, and enhancing the quality and capacity of wetlands, river restoration increases natural storage capacity and reduces flood risk. Excess water is stored in a timely and natural manner in areas where values such as attractive landscape and biodiversity are improved and opportunities for recreation can be enhanced. In these ways, river restoration directly contributes to climate change strategies aimed at mitigating the effects of increased and erratic peak flows and droughts.
River restoration is increasingly being delivered by flood risk managers to create space for flood water. Reconnecting floodplains to the river and managed realignment in estuaries is an important mechanism of water management.
Future climate change will potentially affect all aspects of the rainfall regime. The precise nature of these changes is uncertain, particularly for those extreme events, whether of short or long-duration, which tend to lead to flooding. Increases in rainfall at all scales will increase the risk of flooding to a greater or lesser extent, depending on how these increases manifest themselves in space and time and of the rainfall-runoff characteristics of the catchment in question.
Benefits
River restoration improves flood protection, but it also brings about co-benefits that are multifold. Firstly, river restoration can improve flood storage capacity of a river and reduce the volume and speed of water. Some of the co-benefitst can include cost reductions by removing the need to maintain hard infrastructure and also improving the quality of water, and thus in turn drinking water costs. Improved biodiversity and the creation of natural wetlands is another adjunct result of river restoration using green infrastructure. Finally it improves resilience to climate change by creating new floodplanes for increased water storage, green networks and more natural space for people and wildlife during higher temperatures.
Costs
There are different kinds and degrees of river restoration. A larger scale project can include an entire floodplane, removing past structures and restoring natural processes and channels of a water course. A smaller project may simply be removing structures in one place, and replacing them with more natural features.
Barriers to Implementation
Lack of funding is often cited as a key reason for failing to restore watercourses and rivers, as well as, consensus in agreement of users of a river. Given that restoration can take place on either a large or small scale, the associated barriers often also relate to how extensive the project is.