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This webinar was co-sponsored by ASCE's Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) and ASCE Continuing Education

Instructor:  F. Douglas Shields, Jr, Ph.D., P.E., BC.WRE, F.EWRI, F.ASCE

Course Length: 1 Hour

Purpose and Background

Placement of large wood (felled trees or parts of trees) in degraded rivers and streams is one of the most widely practiced river restoration measures, and its use is accelerating as scientific research yields more information on the ecological significance of wood in rivers. Structures made from large wood are used to enhance and create desirable habitat conditions and to stabilize channel beds and banks. Instream large wood design is difficult because natural wood decays and is transported by rivers while most restoration projects are intended to provide ecosystem services and benefits over a design life exceeding a few months. Computations required by design include forces and moments acting on wood structures and restraining elements such as ballast, pilings or anchors. This webinar teaches participants to use appropriate analytical techniques for these computations and to select appropriate values for key parameters and safety factors.

Primary Discussion Topics

• Placing wood projects in an appropriate geomorphic context
• Site selection for wood projects
• Appropriate values for wood density and drag and lift coefficients
• Selection of anchoring systems
• Available tools to facilitate computations

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Identify strengths and weaknesses of each of the 3 or 4 most current design guidance documents for instream wood projects
• Avoid wood placement projects that are likely to fail structurally or ecologically
• Select appropriate levels of effort and sophistication for wood structure design

Webinar Benefits

• Find out the latest published guidelines for instream wood design and the strengths and weaknesses of each
• Learn how to select appropriate levels of design effort for a given wood project
• Select appropriate strategies for restraining wood placed in stream corridors
• Learn efficient approaches to compute forces acting on wood in rivers
• Learn what types of sediment transport and scour analyses are available for instream wood projects

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Students' achievement of the learning outcomes will be assessed via a short post-assessment (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Intended Audience

• General civil and hydraulic engineers working in stream restoration
• Stream restoration project managers
• Those with B.S. or higher level degree in civil engineering, hydrology or earth science
• Those with 1 to 5 years' experience in stream restoration project design, implementation, monitoring or assessment

Webinar Outline

• Review of information resources (design handbooks and spreadsheets) for large wood
• Criteria for determining if wood appropriate for your site
• Three design approaches
• Key issues for large wood design
• Case study - Little Topashaw Creek, Mississippi
• Design life for wood structures/selection of design event or condition
• Types of wood structures
• Findings of recent research on drag and lift coefficients
• "Road testing" selected design spreadsheets
• Sensitivity and Monte Carlo analyses
• Constructability assessment

How to Earn your CEUs/PDHs and Receive Your Certificate of Completion

To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to complete a short on-line post-test and receive a passing score of 70% or higher within 1 year of purchasing the course.

How do I convert CEUs to PDHs?

1.0 CEU = 10 PDHs [Example: 0.1 CEU = 1 PDH]