Teaching Stream Restoration: Experiences from Interdiscipinary Studio Instruction

Stream restoration involves the application of disciplines such as hydrology, fluvial geomorphology, ecology, engineering, and landscape architecture, so education should arguably replicate the transdisciplinary, collaborative approach ideally found in practice. We report on our experience teaching a studio course on ecological factors in planning and design, in which we use urban streams in northern California as sites. The course is organized into three distinct phases: inventory/analysis, planning, and design. First, students survey the channel, map and measure vegetation, document traces of wildlife, map human uses and access points, and analyze the surrounding landscape (such as storm drain networks and local schools). Next, in the master plan phase, teams of three to four students work at the scale of the entire study reach (10–20 km) to tackle issues such as integrated trail systems, improving public access, or restoring native vegetation. In the third phase, students develop individual projects for specific sites consistent with their master plans, making tangible the overall concepts. Field data collection and analysis force students to reconcile the relationship between science and design, fostering critical thinking about scientific methods and scales of operation. The studio seeks to train students in a holistic, evidence-based, process-oriented approach to stream restoration.