The prediction of the morphological evolution of renaturalized streams is important for the success of restoration projects. Riparian vegetation is a key component of the riverine landscape and is therefore essential for the natural rehabilitation of rivers. This complicates the design of morphological interventions, since riparian vegetation is influenced by and influences the river dynamics. Morphodynamic models, useful tools for project planning, should therefore include the interaction between vegetation, water flow and sediment processes. Most restoration projects are carried out in USA and Europe, where rivers are highly intervened and where the climate is temperate and vegetation shows a clear seasonal cycle. Taking into account seasonal variations might therefore be relevant for the prediction of the river morphological adaptation. This study investigates the morphodynamic effects of riparian vegetation on a re-meandered lowland stream in the Netherlands, the Lunterse Beek. The work includes the analysis of field data covering 5years and numerical modelling. The results allow assessment of the performance of a modelling tool in predicting the morphological evolution of the stream and the relevance of including the seasonal variations of vegetation in the computations. After the establishment of herbaceous plants on its banks, the Lunterse Beek did not show any further changes in channel alignment. This is here attributed to the stabilizing effects of plant roots together with the small size of the stream. It is expected that the morphological restoration of similarly small streams may result in important initial morphological adaptation followed by negligible changes after full vegetation establishment. ... Read more

Vegetation processes are widely recognized as a key component on the ecological and morphological development of river channels. Moreover, plants reduce flow velocities and bed-shear stresses by increasing the local hydraulic roughness and thus increasing water levels. Therefore, monitoring the vegetation development is an important activity in river management not only for protecting ecological services, but also in flood risk reduction; especially in times of a changing climate. This paper presents the analysis the effects of riparian vegetation growth on the morphology of a lowland restored stream located in The Netherlands, the Lunterse beek. An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was used to obtain aerial imagery at different time steps which was the basis for generating land cover maps with semi-automated image classification. In addition hydrological series and multi-temporal highresolution bathymetric data allowed analysing river bed morphology and the relevance of seasonality. The UAV campaigns were found a crucial step to ease the vegetation mapping and monitoring. The morphological change observed in this stream, represented by the channel-width adjustment and the cross sectional evolution, is slowed down once vegetation is stablished on the stream. Results of this work show that the vegetation root system assert a strong control on soil stabilization, even during the winter season when the plants biomass is highly reduced. Seasonal variations in plant development appear important only during the first stages of establishment, when vegetation has a low density and, more importantly, a root system that is not fully developed yet. ... Read more