River restoration projects are complex structures involving a multitude of hydraulic approaches to develop a river ecosystem that is intended improve habitat for targeted species (animal and plant). These designs are often put together with extensive modeling and design efforts. It has been noticed during water up and operation of constructed river restoration projects that water surfaces through the system are often higher than the designs and models predict. The research question this proposal addresses is how different are the water surface elevations between design and actual? It is assumed that these water surface elevations are typically higher than designs and numerical models predict for the low flows and the difference decreases at higher floodplain flows. Little post construction data has been collected and analyzed making selecting an acceptable freeboard for channel and stream design difficult.
