Response and resiliency of rivers and streams to natural and anthropogenic stressors

河流和溪流对自然干扰（如水流状况的季节性变化）和人为压力（如流量调节、河流工程和溪流改造项目）造成的排放条件变化非常敏感。河流水力学和泥沙输移之间的复杂相互作用导致河床和河岸发生侵蚀和沉积过程的河流形态调整。这些形态上的调整可能是非常大的，导致河流和溪流迁移穿过洪泛平原，侵蚀了相当多的土地。这种大规模的形态调整可能对洪水灾害、生态系统健康和污染物向下游迁移产生严重的短期和长期后果。必须能够预测河流和溪流对自然和人为压力的形态和水力反应的性质，以便设计工程解决方案和管理计划，以尽量减少这种不利影响。本研究的目的是调查冲积河流和溪流的自然干扰和人为压力，通过一系列的实验室和实地调查的响应和弹性。该计划中进行的研究将使用最先进的基础设施和设备，以评估曲流河的平面形态对其稳定性的影响，描述复杂河流环境中泥沙输运的性质，并评估河流工程和河流改造对河流中自然水力和形态过程的影响。这项研究是很重要的河流工程师和水文学家谁设计修复措施，以恢复退化的河流和溪流，数值模拟谁需要基本的洞察形态和水力响应复杂的排放条件，流域管理者和土地利用规划者谁寻求平衡生态，社会和河流系统的经济功能，以确保地表水系统的可持续管理。 这项研究将导致在冲积河流和溪流的基本水力和形态过程的新知识的发展，并提供了一个更好的了解具体的形态和水力因素和驱动程序负责改变河流过程。这项研究的结果还将有助于制定加拿大河流工程和河流恢复项目的改进指南，并有助于制定监管指南，如安大略的河流恢复手册和安大略环境部，保护和公园雨水管理规划和设计手册。更好地了解河流和溪流对自然和人为压力的反应和复原力，将有助于对河流环境进行更可持续的管理。

Rivers and streams are very sensitive to changes in discharge conditions resulting from natural disturbances (such as seasonal variation in flow regime) and anthropogenic stressors (such as flow regulation, river engineering and stream modification projects). Complex interactions between stream hydraulics and sediment transport result in morphological adjustments in rivers where the stream bed and banks undergo processes of erosion and deposition. These morphological adjustments can be very substantial, resulting in rivers and streams that migrate across the floodplain and erode considerable amount of land. Such large-scale morphological adjustments can have severe short- and long-term consequences to flood hazard, ecosystem health and the downstream transport of pollutants. It is imperative to be able to predict the nature of the morphologic and hydraulic response of rivers and streams to natural and anthropogenic stressors in order to design engineering solutions and management plans to minimize such adverse impacts. The goal of this research is to investigate the response and resiliency of alluvial rivers and streams to natural disturbances and anthropogenic stressors through a series of laboratory and field-based investigations. The research undertaken within this program will use state-of-the-art infrastructure and equipment to assess the effect of the planform morphology of meandering streams on their stability, characterize the nature of sediment transport in complex riverine environments, and evaluate the effect of river engineering and stream modifications on natural hydraulic and morphologic processes occurring in the stream. This research is important to river engineers and hydrologists who design remediation measures to restore degraded rivers and streams, numerical modellers who require fundamental insight into the morphological and hydraulic response to complex discharge conditions, and watershed managers and land-use planners who seek to balance ecological, social and economic functions of river systems to ensure sustainable management of surface water systems. This research will result in the development of new knowledge of fundamental hydraulic and morphologic processes in alluvial rivers and streams and provide a greater understanding of the specific morphologic and hydraulic factors and drivers responsible for alterations to riverine processes. Results from this research will also assist in developing improved guidelines for river engineering and stream restoration projects in Canada and contribute to regulatory guidelines such as Ontario's Stream Restoration Manual and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks Stormwater Management Planning and Design Manual. The development of a greater understanding of the response and resiliency of rivers and streams to natural and anthropogenic stressors will lead to more sustainable management of the riverine environment.