Proposing River Restoration Methods in Iran (Eco Compatible Approach of River Training)

Rapid developments and population increase due to economic growth caused the deterioration of waterquality, improper use of rivers, destruction of their Ecosystem, loss of water-friendliness, etc. This led toextensive research and activities on river and watershed restoration around the world; These activitiesinclude improving the quality and quantity of water, improving urban landscapes and river views, revivingthe natural environment and ecosystem, and recovering urban and human relations. In fact, the place ofrestoration in the integrated management of water resources is establishing a relationship between the threemain axes: water cycle, social activities and ecosystem. Also in Iran, it is time to replace the previous rivertraining methods with the new restoration approaches in projects like in other countries. In this research,after presenting restoration approaches according to world experiences, the condition of Iranian rivers inrelation with restoration approach were investigated and categorized the problems of these rivers. Then,according to the special conditions of our country, restoration approaches extracted from globalexperiences. At the end, the problems of rivers in Iran and improper river training works mentioned. Finally,the appropriate methods of river restoration in Iran, has discussed which is classified in tree maincategories: management approaches, river sides approaches and bio structural methods.

Keywords:

Restoration , Renaturalization , River Training , Bio Structural Methods