Master of Science / Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources / Charles J. Barden / Sedimentation of Federal reservoirs in Kansas has been identified as a critical issue affecting municipal and industrial water supplies, flood control, recreation, and aquatic life. Eroding streambanks are major sources of sediment. Many streambank stabilization projects have been installed over the past 20 years, but there has been very little follow-up monitoring of the effectiveness of these practices. The project goal is to quantify the environmental benefits of government-sponsored streambank stabilization and restoration projects in northeastern Kansas, with a focus on six sites in which tree ad rock revetments were installed. Several of the sites had stabilized reaches and similar un-stabilized reaches as controls. Macroinvertebrate bioassessments were conducted at two sites, on the Delaware River and Plum Creek on the Kickapoo reservation, to compare eroding and stabilized stream reaches. Biotic Index, Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP), Average Score per Taxon (ASPT), and Elmidae – Plecoptera – Trichoptera (EIPT) were calculated to compare the stabilized sites performance for water quality and aquatic habitat. The biological indices showed habitat quality on stabilized reaches compared to control reaches. Alfa diversity Shannon-Wiener and Simpson indices were calculated and improve in habitat quality and macroinvertebrate diversity was shown in stabilized reaches. Two new cedar revetments were established in 2017 on Little Grasshopper and Wolfley creeks. These cedar revetment installations resulted in heavy sediment deposits after high flow events with the revetments retaining 121 and 48 cubic meters, respectively. A novel method of using exposed roots was used successfully to quantify erosion on Axtell-Schmidt Dairy farm creek and Wolfley creek, where we found an average yearly erosion of 3.39 and 10.26 cm respectively. Other sites also showed reduced erosion on stabilized reaches and a development of vegetation cover along the riparian areas near the streams. Cedar revetments are shown to be a cost-effective stabilization method on smaller streams. Also, these practices and evaluation methods are a good opportunity for community and stakeholder involvement because it is possible to train community members in the monitoring practices. It is recommended to continue monitoring these sites to compare them with the designated control in order to document long-term effects.

Soil bioengineering is a widespread science which is usually applied in Europe and North America for natural systems stabilization such as streambanks, slopes and eroded areas. It is a relatively new technical discipline, that has well developed concepts, from a practical point of view. Nevertheless, it still has some theoretical and technical issues that should be addressed. One of those issues is related with the lack of analytical methodologies and procedures for the elaboration of projects based on soil bioengineering techniques. Taking this issue into consideration, the purpose of this dissertation is to accomplish the development of a project methodology for the application of soil bioengineering techniques in infrastructure works, and to show its use in one case study for river stabilization in pipeline stream crossing. The developed methodology presents an hierarchical procedure with three project phases: conceptual, basic and executive, each of which is composed by objectives and development activities. During project elaboration this methodology has proved to be relevant to acquire, manage and analyze information in a rationalized sequence, and hence, facilitating the understanding of the problem phenomenology, the choice of techniques and the design method for each problem, as well as logistic description and quantification required for the execution of the one projected case study. This methodology has proved to be an efficient tool to standardize and generalize soil bioengineering project activities for greater responsibility applications. / A engenharia natural é bastante difundida e comumente utilizada na Europa e América do Norte para a estabilização de sistemas naturais como taludes fluviais, encostas e áreas sob processo erosivo. É uma disciplina técnica relativamente recente que tem conceitos, do ponto de vista prático-aplicativo, bem desenvolvidos. Contudo, possui questões, principalmente de caráter teórico-técnico, que ainda devem ser respondidas. Uma dessas questões diz respeito à falta de metodologias analíticas e procedimentadas para o desenvolvimento de projetos de engenharia natural em obras de infraestrutura. Neste sentido, a proposta do presente trabalho consiste em desenvolver uma metodologia para a elaboração de projetos de engenharia natural para obras de infraestrutura e demonstrar sua aplicação no desenvolvimento de um projeto de estabilização fluvial em travessia de dutos terrestres. A metodologia desenvolvida apresenta um procedimento hierarquizado composto por três fases de projeto: Conceitual, Básica e Executiva, sendo, cada uma, composta por objetivos e atividades de desenvolvimento. Na concepção do projeto a metodologia mostrou-se importante para a organização das informações em uma sequência racionalizada de obtenção e análise, facilitando, desse modo, a compreensão da fenomenologia dos problemas envolvidos, a escolha e o dimensionamento das técnicas mais adequadas a cada problema, bem como a descrição e quantificação da logística necessária à implantação da obra projetada. A metodologia se mostra uma ferramenta eficiente na uniformização e universalização das atividades de projeto de engenharia natural em aplicações de maior responsabilidade.