Where along a river's length will vegetation most effectively stabilise stream banks?

Abstract

Riparian vegetation has different impacts on stream processes depending upon its position in a catchment. Native riparian vegetation is increasingly becoming the favoured stream management tool but managers need to locate revegetation schemes where they will most effectively achieve ecological, geomorphological, or other, project goals. Using the Latrobe River in SE Australia as an example, this paper illustrates a structured decision-making approach for assessing the role of vegetation in stream bank erosion at different points throughout a catchment. Three bank-erosion process groups are identified: subaerial preparation, fluvial entrainment, and mass failure. Although these processes act ..