Prioritizing Stream Restoration Projects in the City of Roanoke, VA: Tool Development & Case Study

The City of Roanoke (City) is currently evaluating potential stream restoration projects to achieve several watershed goals, including meeting total maximum daily load (TMDL) requirements, mitigating floods, recovering ecological function, and transforming the Roanoke River into a community asset (Figure 1). The overall project goal was to develop a prioritization process for stream restoration projects to help maximize benefits from restoration projects and to apply this process to one watershed as a case study. The stream assessment approach was developed based on indicator parameters for stream functions and biological stressors; assessment data were collected utilizing both desktop analyses and field surveys. The prioritization framework was then developed based on City goals, current literature, and best practices in stream restoration. The initial stream condition ranking was a quantitative assessment, scoring, and comparison of the stream conditions for each reach. The reaches were next screened based on the technical assessment of each function for each reach. This technical screening produced a short list of potential projects that were ranked according to technical and socioeconomic factors.