Most notable are reports since the mid-1980s from the University of Wyoming's Water Resource Research Center. These offer a particularly rich source of ideas and very practical advice. However, in the 1930's the US Department of Agriculture advocated methods to recharge aquifers artificially for underground storage. Water can infiltrate streambanks or percolate downward through the soil to the aquifer faster than it travels horizontally through the aquifer and returns to the stream. The dams built by humans are about a foot and a half high.
Required materials are old tires, woven wire, erosion mat, and steel posts.
Reports from the University of Wyoming give detailed instructions and advice. These and other reports also provide needed information about how to measure and monitor the changes in ground water storage levels, usually with numerous small diameter plastic-pipe wells. Efforts by beavers are a little more sophisticated and their list of materials is different. Also, their instructions are harder to translate. However, both groups of builders find that structures work best when plant roots are encouraged to bind together the construction materials.