ABSTRACT. Riparian buffers are vegetated areas along water bodies that serve an array of functions, ranging from water quality protection, soil erosion control, to species preservation. The establishment and maintenance of riparian buffers have been an important environmental management practice in the United States since the 1970's. Emerging along with this practice is a body of knowledge about riparian buffers. In this article, over 500 articles published in the past three decades are reviewed, substantiating this still evolving field of inquiry, which we shall designate as riparian buffer studies. Among the major findings of the literature review are (1) the literature starts to emerge with greater frequency in the 1980's, grows in depth and scope throughout the 1990's, and continues to the present date; (2) publications surveyed fall into three broad thematic categories that relate to the functions, performance, and policies of riparian buffers, respectively; (3) a large percentage of the publications (over 80%) address issues across thematic categories; (4) this convergence of thematic categories may suggest not only the interwoven nature of the various aspects of riparian buffers, but also the need for a holistic approach to riparian buffer studies; (5) geospatial information technology plays an integral role in the evolution of riparian buffer studies; (6) emerging themes for riparian buffer studies include optimization of benefits, wildlife research, ecosystem restoration, headwater stream functions, economics, restoration, performance, policy, active management, and disturbance ecology, just to name a few.
The stream restoration potential of recreational modifications made to lowhead dams on an urban reach of Buck Creek, in Springfield, Ohio, is dependent on constraints imposed by the urban infrastructure on stream grade. A privately led initiative to improve the recreational potential of a 9 km reach of Buck Creek and its tributary Beaver Creek includes the modification of four lowhead dams. The hydraulic heights of these dams will be replaced with a series of v-shaped drop structures engineered to create hydraulics conducive to kayak play. The drop structure is a constructed channel constriction composed of a hard step in the long stream profile immediately upstream of a scour pool, forming a morphologic sequence of constriction, step, and pool. In this study, we assess the potential benefits of these changes for urban stream restoration. Two of the dams have been modified to date. Stream quality, as measured by the qualitative habitat evaluation index (QHEI), dissolved oxygen of surface and substrate water, and the pollution tolerance index (PTI), increased at the Snyder Park site but decreased at the Art Museum site. Stream quality increased at the Snyder Park site, where stream grade could be lowered upstream of the lowhead dam, but decreased at the Art Museum site, where grade upstream of the lowhead dam had to be maintained because of water and wastewater utilities buried in the channel bed. Where stream grade is lowered in the former impoundment, sand and gravel deposits upstream of the constriction are not embedded with finer particles and organic matter. Increased QHEI values, particularly the substrate metric, and greater abundance and diversity of pollution-intolerant macroinvertebrates, supported by higher dissolved oxygen in the substrate water, characterize the Snyder Park site. At the Art Museum site, the v-shaped constriction increased the upstream impounded area. The substrate has become embedded with fine sands, silts, and organics, lowering QHEI values, dissolved oxygen is critically low in the substrate, and macroinvertebrate populations are more pollution-tolerant. The results highlight the significance of stream grade if stream restoration is to be incorporated into the engineering design of in-stream recreational features.
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