Research presented at the UC Berkeley RiverLab Urban Rivers Symposium, Spring 2021.
Actively incising Lower Tassajara Creek in Dublin, California, was restored as a compound channel in 1999-2000 to mitigate incision and provide flood conveyance capacity to reduce flood risk to an adjacent greenfield residential development. The compound channel design incorporated wide floodplain terraces, planted with native riparian and upland vegetation. Prior geomorphological and ecological studies conducted in the first decade after the restoration project suggested that the project had successfully halted channel incision and that riparian vegetation was developing. I built upon the last vegetation study in 2008, recreating the photo monitoring points and resurveying the established vegetation transects for the Tassajara Creek project’s northern reach. I also used remote sensing to quantify changes in vegetation cover over the last decade, finding a 63% increase in vegetation cover. Both field and remote sensing analyses indicated continued tree canopy growth and maturation of the riparian ecosystem in this restored urban stream.