streams
Stream Management Program Definition

Geomorphic Approach

The geomorphic approach recognizes that the physical structure of stream channels governs habitat quality, fisheries’ health, flood behavior, rates of erosion and, ultimately, water quality. The shape and size of a stream channel adapts itself to the amount of water and bedload it needs to carry. Within certain limits, the form, or morphology, of a stream is self-adjusting, self-stabilizing, self-sustaining. If a stream management plan exceeds those limits, however, the stream may remain unstable for a long time.

< back to streams