page_title: Stream restoration
section_title: Additional practices
hierarchical_section_title: Stream restoration / Restoration approaches and techniques / Additional practices
caption_attribution_description: English: The Balam Estate rain garden in Singapore provides an effective stormwater management system. Rainwater passes through the rain garden, and the filtered water then flows into the stormwater drain.
context_page_description: Stream restoration or river restoration, also sometimes referred to as river reclamation, is work conducted to improve the environmental health of a river or stream, in support of biodiversity, recreation, flood management and/or landscape development. Stream restoration approaches can be divided into two broad categories: form-based restoration, which relies on physical interventions in a stream to improve its conditions; and process-based restoration, which advocates the restoration of hydrological and geomorphological processes to ensure a stream's resilience and ecological health. Form-based restoration techniques include deflectors; cross-vanes; weirs, step-pools and other grade-control structures; engineered log jams; bank stabilization methods and other channel-reconfiguration efforts. These induce immediate change in a stream, but sometimes fail to achieve the desired effects if degradation originates at a wider scale. Process-based restoration includes restoring lateral or longitudinal connectivity of water and sediment fluxes and limiting interventions within a corridor defined based on the stream's hydrology and geomorphology.
context_section_description: In addition to the aforementioned restoration approaches and methods, additional measures can be implemented if stream degradation factors occur at the watershed scale. First, high-quality areas should also be protected. Additional measures include revegetation/reforestation efforts (ideally with native species); the adoption of agricultural best management practices that minimize erosion and runoff; adequate treatment of sewage water and industrial discharge across the watershed; and improved stormwater management to delay/minimize the transport of water to the stream and minimize pollutant migration. Alternative stormwater management facilities include the following options:
  Bioretention systems and rain gardens
  Constructed wetlands
  Infiltration basins
  Retention basins
caption: A rain garden in Singapore
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