Ecological Revetment Research Articles

Comparative Analysis of Ecological Revetment and Traditional Revetment

Ecological revetment is a new kind of environmental protection technology, which combines civil engineering techniques with environmental engineering techniques. At the same time, it also considers the protection function of traditional revetment and provides unique humanistic and ecological value, which is a new trend and a new direction of revetment research. This paper mainly analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of ecological revetment compared with traditional revetment. First, the related concepts and functions of coastline resources, urban waterfront and waterfront buffer zone are defined. Then, around these two kinds of coastline in-depth study of three sub-projects are discussed in detail, including the traditional slope revetment, traditional wall revetment, traditional dam revetment, and ecological block revetment, grass brick revetment, medium screen revetment. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of the two kinds of revetments are analyzed and compared. The results show that the ecological revetment has better ecological value and humanistic value, which is conducive to beautifying the urban waterfront environment, but there is a problem of high investment and maintenance cost.

Ecological health evaluation of an urban riverside greenway based on the AHP-EWM-TOPSIS model: a case study of Hangzhou, China

Abstract Riverside greenways are complex artificial–natural composite ecosystems that occupy significant linear open spaces in urban areas. Healthy riverside greenways promote public health and improve urban environmental quality. This study developed an evaluation system with four criteria layers and 31 indicators, using a comprehensive method that combines the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), entropy weight method (EWM), and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) to assess the ecological health of the Shangtang River greenway in Hangzhou, China. Additionally, structural equation modeling analyzed key factors influencing riverside greenway health and their pathways. Redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to explore how design and non–design factors affect the ecological health of riverside greenways. The results showed health values for different sections of the riverside greenway ranging from 0.16 to 0.69. The use of ecological design techniques was the main factor causing significant variations in health values across sampling plots. Specifically, ecological revetments, the slope of terrain at water entry, and ecological conservation measures positively impacted the ecological health of the riverside greenway, while non–native invasive plants and building density had negative effects. Non–design factors, such as physical states, also play an equally important role in the ecological health of urban riverside greenways. Effectively assessing the ecological health of these greenways is essential for developing management strategies. This study presents a novel framework for evaluating the ecological health of urban riverside greenways by quantifying indicators related to the regional environment, physical conditions, management practices, and design techniques. It quantitatively analyzes how landscape design techniques contribute to ecological health and serves as an empirical tool for improving urban waterfront environments and advancing riverside greenway construction and management.

Carbon Footprint Quantification and Reduction Potential of Ecological Revetment in Water Net Region of China: Case Study in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province

With emphasis on constructing low-carbon cities, the renovation of the riverbank highlights energy conservation and carbon reduction. However, methods and standards for quantifying carbon emissions during ecological river channel construction are currently lacking. There is a scientific gap in research into carbon footprint assessment and reduction potential in ecological revetment technologies in water networks of China. This study attempts to clarify the carbon emission factors of different ecological revetment technologies and explore the carbon reduction potential during the construction stage of ecological rivers from the river revetment design, construction process and materials. The results show that in the carbon emission factors of six ecological revetment technologies, building materials have the largest adjusting potential for carbon reduction. The concrete material is responsible for 55.37–95.86% of carbon emissions in six ecological river technologies, with an average proportion of 69.96%. Accordingly, the concrete material emerges as the primary contributor to carbon emissions in ecological river engineering, followed by gasoline truck transportation and earthwork excavation. Moreover, the carbon emissions from ecological frame structures were the largest, followed by those of block structures, gabion structures, planted concrete and interlocking blocks and the wooden stake structure has the smallest carbon footprint. The choice of ecological revetment technologies is not only related to the realisation of regional water conservancy functions, but it also affects the carbon emissions of water conservancy projects. Engineers and decision-makers should pay great attention to the optimal design of the project, selection of low-carbon materials, energy saving and emission reduction in the construction process. This research not only provides guidance for design units in selecting appropriate river revetment technologies but also offers a theoretical foundation and data support for construction units to optimise their construction process management.

Comprehensive evaluation of urban river ecological bank protection based on AHP-TOPSIS method

ABSTRACT An ecological revetment is a new type that combines natural vegetation with civil engineering technology to establish functions, such as flood control, drainage, ecology, and landscape. Various types of ecological and other bank protection lead to different bank protection effects. Urban river ecological bank protection can effectively prevent bank collapse and promote mutual infiltration between river water and soil and is important for maintaining the balance of the river ecosystem and enhancing the ecological service function of river bank protection. To scientifically and accurately evaluate the ecological protection of riverbanks, this study screened 16 evaluation indicators based on four aspects: structural stability, ecological functionality, landscape suitability, and socio-economic status. A comprehensive evaluation index system for urban river ecological protection was constructed and an urban river ecological protection evaluation model based on the AHP – TOPSIS method was established. The model was used to evaluate the ecological protection of the rivers in the study area. The results revealed that the evaluation value, 0.830, of the self-embedded retaining wall exhibited the best performance among the current slope protection types. In addition, structural stability is a crucial factor in river ecological revetments, and the evaluation results were consistent with the revetment type selected in actual engineering. Therefore, the evaluation system constructed in this study is reasonable and reliable and has strong generalizability. This study provides theoretical guidance for selecting ecological protection banks for future river management projects and has specific references important for academic research and the development of environmental protection banks.

Experimental Study of Vegetative Properties in Zeolite–Biochar-Improved Ecological Revetment Substrates

The vegetation of the ecological substrate plays a crucial role in restoring shoreline ecology. This study focused on using zeolite and biochar as substrate modifiers, specifically utilizing the Cynodon dactylon from Central China for vegetation. A pot vegetation experiment was carried out to compare the effects of different ratios of zeolite and biochar. The vegetation indices, including germination index, plant height, and coverage rate, were analyzed and discussed. The results revealed that zeolite primarily influenced the germination index of Cynodon dactylon, while biochar had a more significant impact on germination percentage, germination energy, plant height, and coverage rate. This study discovered that the seed germination effect of the improved substrate initially increased with zeolite content and then decreased. The average germination percentage was 63.96%. Conversely, it decreased with an increase in biochar content, resulting in an average germination percentage of 55.45%. Zeolite and biochar caused a decrease and increase in substrate pH by −0.11 and 0.4 on average, respectively. The germination of each substrate showed a negative correlation with pH. Additionally, the average coverage and plant height decreased with an increase in biochar content. However, the inclusion of 6% zeolite led to an increase in coverage and plant height. Specifically, the average plant height increased by 3.92 cm and the coverage by 7.48%. Our research identified the optimal ratio of zeolite and biochar as 6% zeolite and 0% biochar, showcasing good overall vegetative properties. These findings offer insights for further understanding the vegetative effects of zeolite–biochar-modified substrates and optimizing substrate schemes for ecological vegetation projects.

Hydrodynamic Characteristics of an Ecological Revetment Cavity Structure under the Propagation of Ship-Generated Waves in a Restricted Channel

Hydrodynamic Characteristics of an Ecological Revetment Cavity Structure under the Propagation of Ship-Generated Waves in a Restricted Channel

Numerical Simulation of Wave Overtopping of an Ecologically Honeycomb-Type Revetment with Rigid Vegetation

Traditional concrete revetments can destroy the ecological environment and the water landscape. An increasing number of ecological revetment structures have been applied in coastal, lake, and river regulation projects. It has been found that honeycomb-type revetments display a better performance in the attenuation of wave overtopping when compared to experimental data collected using the Eurotop and Muttray’s formula; recording a 40% decrease in the wave run-up in comparison to the latter. To further investigate the wave run-up and overtopping of the ecologically vegetated honeycomb-type revetment, based on OpenFOAM, an open source computational fluid dynamics software, a three-dimensional numerical wave tank was established. The Discrete Particle Method (DPM) was used to simulate gravel movement, and the flexible plant move boundary model was developed to simulate vegetation. The results of wave run-up calculated by the numerical model and those obtained by the experiments were in good agreement, with errors less than 20%. The modeled results of wave overtopping were within the same order of magnitude as those from the experiments; however, critical limitations were noticed due to effects of plant generalization and grid restrictions imposed by DPM methods. The results showed that wave overtopping increased with increasing wave period and wave height. However, with an increase in the wave overtopping, the influence of the wave period on wave overtopping decreased. The increase in vegetation density effectively reduced wave overtopping. Furthermore, an empirical formula for wave overtopping, considering the effects of vegetation density, was proposed.

Hydrothermal synthesis of a novel ecological revetment material by sediment mixed with biochar

Ecological revetments , as a sustainable way of ecological construction of water conservancy projects, have attracted much attention. Herein, we synthesized a novel revetment material hydrothermally with the local sediment enriched with biochar made from waste biomass. The effect of Ca(OH) 2 content, biochar content, curing temperature and curing time on the strength and porous structure of the material was studied, and with 25 mass% Ca(OH) 2 and 2 mass% biochar cured at 200 °C for 12 h, the synthesized materials possess a lower pH (≤9.32), higher flexural strength (20.8 MPa) and superior removal performance of ammonia nitrogen (45%), phosphorus (100%) and heavy metals (≥90%). The formation of C–S–H and tobermorite in the matrix were found to enhance the strength of the materials, and the porous structure was attributed to the original porous structure of sediment, further the formed tobermorite and added biochar. The Sorption kinetics and equilibria of the material for heavy metals followed pseudo-second order and Langmuir isotherm equations respectively, which indicates that the mechanism of adsorption for heavy metals mainly is attributed to the chemical adsorption . In addition, the synthesized materials were used as revetments in Beiheng River (Shanghai, China), which provides a site for demonstration of the flood control and ecological restoration. • A revetment can be synthesized hydrothermally from the local sediment and biochar. • The novel revetment materials possess the merits of both soft and hard revetments. • The revetment materials possess lower pH and good adsorption of heavy metals. • The revetment has been used to improve the ecology of the Beiheng river (China).

Wave-attenuation characteristics of combined-vegetation wave break forests for big rivers with large flood water level changes.

For large rivers with a compound cross section, the downstream channel has a very wide water surface during the flood season. A wide water surface, high water level, and larger wind speed will cause higher waves, increasing the threat of flooding to the dike. The design of a combined-vegetation wave break forest was put forward to achieve better wave attenuation effect. The main idea of this concept is to plant different types of vegetation at different locations in front of the dike. Three single-vegetation and four combined-vegetation forest schemes were tested under seven different water depth conditions. Both physical experiments and wave numerical simulations were carried out for each scheme to study the wave attenuation effect. The results showed that the wave attenuation effect of the single-vegetation wave break forest was significantly different under different water depth conditions, and the overall effect of the combined-vegetation of wave forest was better. Combined-vegetation wave break forests combine the advantages of different types of vegetation in different water levels, which makes it more economical and reasonable to plant by rivers with large water level variation. The proposed design ideas and methods could provide theoretical support for ecological revetment engineering of large rivers and insights for practical applications.

Classification and applicability analysis of ecological revetment in different types of river

In this paper, we classified and summarized 25 kinds of ecological revetment commonly used at home and abroad in recent years according to river hydraulic characteristics and special functions. This paper focuses on the characteristics, materials and technical methods of these ecological revetments, and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of ecological revetments from the aspects of ecology, landscape, construction, structure, economy and application. Combined with the ecological effects of these ecological revetment, the application scope and promotion significance of these ecological revetment are given, which plays a positive role in the promotion and application of ecological revetment.

Evaluation of the carbon emission reduction effects of ecological river revetment construction

Abstract Water conservancy projects are one of the main sources of carbon emissions. Nearly 60% of river revetments in developed countries are treated with ecological slope protection technologies to reduce carbon emissions. Ecological river revetment has been widely adopted as a measure for slope protection. Presently, the study on carbon emission reduction mainly focuses on agricultural production, petroleum exploitation, residential life, and transportation. No significant research has been made on the effects of river revetment protection projects on carbon emissions. This study evaluates the carbon emissions from structural and ecological revetments, and its impact on China's climate. Results show that the ecological revetment can reduce carbon emissions significantly, by 93% as compared to the structural revetment. Moreover, the construction cost of an ecological slope is 37% cheaper than that of a structural slope. This research proves that ecological river slope protection technologies are vital for reducing China's carbon emission.

Ecological revetments for enhanced interception of nonpoint source pollutants: a review

The riparian zone is a transitional zone between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and is also the only passage for surface runoff to enter a river. The role of the riparian zone as a means for intercepting nonpoint source (NPS) pollution has been receiving growing attention and, in recent years, various ecological revetments have been developed to strengthen the interception of runoff pollutants. This research reviews the current development of ecological revetments in terms of NPS pollution control with a focus on the key functions and optimization methods of vegetation allocation and substrate configuration. Future research on improving the ecological revetments for enhanced NPS pollution control are also highlighted. This review is intended to provide a technical reference for the optimization and implementation of ecological revetment projects, and possible pathways for the effective control of NPS pollution.

An advanced index of ecological Integrity (IEI) for assessing ecological efficiency of restauration revetments in river plain

Abstract Ecological revetments make an important role in river restauration. However, evaluating the ecological efficiency of revetments as a major determinant of revetments selecting is lack of quantitative methods. Here, we developed an Index of Ecological Integrity (IEI) to assess the ecological efficiency of seven model restauration revetments quantitatively based on four times regular ecological investigation in a representative river plain. Thirteen metrics of the IEI were identified from the candidate pool made up of 46 indicators. These indicators corresponded to the metrics of 5 existing synthetic indexes respectively, Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) of fish, IBI of benthic macro-invertebrate, IBI of zooplankton, Habitat Index, and Water Quality Index. Signal-noise ratio and one-way analysis of variance indicated that the IEI was more effective to distinguish the differences of ecological efficiency among revetments. Furthermore, IEI suggested that 7 types of restauration revetment could improve the ecological quality of plain rivers to different degree. Rock, eco-bag, and eco-concrete tetrad-ball as ecological revetments were more suitable for river plains like Hang-jia-hu Plain (Zhejiang Province, China) because of highly positive ecological efficiency in two years after restoration engineering completing.

Study on ecological protection and rehabilitation technology of a reservoir-type water source in the northeastern region of China

ABSTRACTSurface water is the main source of water for human life and production. The quality of water affects living conditions and the overall health of people. Ecological protection and restoration engineering technology, combining ecological revetment and an ecological floating bed, is applied to a selected shallow beach experimentation area of a reservoir water source area in Northeast China. According to local conditions, the ecological revetment plants were identified as Goosegrass, sedges, and water grasses, and other local species of Polygonum hydropiper bagen, reeds, and bulrushes were identified as ecological floating bed plants. Regular monitoring of water quality in the experimentation area and a control area showed that the ecological protection and restoration technology can effectively reduce the concentrations of BOD5 (five day biochemical oxygen demand), COD (chemical oxygen demand), TN, NH3-N, NO3−-N, TP, TDP, Mn, Zn, Fe, Pb, total coliforms, and other indicators of surface water in the experimentation area. The BOD5, COD, Max TN, NH3-N, NO3−-N, TP, and TDP reduction rates were 84.76%, 57.14%, 86.76%, 83.78%, 89.26%, 94.02%, and 95.89%, respectively, with the implementation of water pollution prevention and the purifying shoal.

An Investigation on Performance and Structure of Ecological Revetment in a Sub-Tropical Area: A Case Study on Cuatien River, Vinh City, Vietnam

The current study was performed with an aim to investigate the performance of ecological revetments implemented on the bank of the Cuatien River in Vinh city, Vietnam. Based on the ecological, topographical, and hydrological conditions of the Cuatien River, the gabion and riprap models were introduced to investigate the effect of ecological revetment on the slope stability and ecological restoration characteristics. The effect of prevailing climatic indicators, such as temperature, precipitation, sunlight hours, and humidity were investigated to ascertain the characteristics of weather conditions on the subtropical area. On the surface soil layer of the gabion and riprap, the nutrient indicators of soil organic matter (SOM) and available nitrogen (AN) increased in the spring, summer, and winter, but decreased in autumn, and available phosphorus (AP) did not show an obvious change in the four seasons. The biomass growth rate of Vetiver grass on the gabion and riprap revetments was found to be the highest during the summer, at 15.11 and 17.32 g/month, respectively. The root system of Vetiver and other native plants could increase the cohesion of soil. After 6 and 12 months, the shear strength of the soil behind the gabion revetment increased by 59.6% and 162.9%, while the shear strength of the soil under the riprap also increased by 115.6% and 239.1%, respectively. The results also indicated that the gabion and riprap revetments could improve the river water purification effect and increase the ecological diversity in the region. In the current study, 26 floral and 9 faunal species were detected in the riprap revetment, whereas 14 floral and 5 faunal species were detected in the gabion revetment, respectively. Through high sequencing technology, the number of bacterial species in the present study was found to be 198, 332, and 351 in the water, gabion, and riprap samples, respectively.

Comparative Study on Influences of Bank Slope Ecological Revetments on Water Quality Purification Pretreating Low-Polluted Waters

To improve aquatic environmental quality and maintain channel stability against soil erosion, ecological bank slope revetments for surface water bodies were developed using a combination of prefabricated porous concrete spheres and vegetation methods, and a model set-up consisting of two equal-sized ditches with different types of bank slope revetments was constructed to evaluate the purification effects of ecological and hard revetments on water quality. The slope of one ditch was embanked with ecological revetments as an experimental treatment, while the other was embanked with hard revetments as a control. Pollutant removal from the ecological bank revetment ditch was significantly better in terms of the overall removal efficiencies of the chemical oxygen demand of manganese (CODMn), ammonia, total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP), with two- to four-fold greater removal compared with that from hard slope revetments under the same operational conditions. Nutrient pollutants, including ammonia, TN, and TP had higher removal efficiencies than that for CODMn in both experimental ditches. The dependence of the first-order rate constant (k20) and temperature coefficient () obtained from the Arrhenius equation indicated that the removal efficiencies for ammonia, TN, and TP were higher with greater rate constants (k20) in the experimental ditch. In the ecological revetment ditch, the k20 values for CODMn, ammonia, TN, and TP were 0.054, 0.378, 0.222, and 0.266 respectively, around three-fold the values observed in the hard revetment ditch, but there was no obvious difference in values between the two ditches. The k20 values of TN and TP in both ditches showed significant positive correlations with seasonal shifts, as the removal of nutrient pollutants is highly sensitive to water temperatures.

生态护坡技术在河流环境综合治理中的应用实践

河流生态系统在流域生态环境中承担着重要的功能，河流的功能定位与结构分析是确定河流环境综合整治和生态修复方案的首要前提条件。针对目前河流环境综合整治的形势，探讨了国内外河流生态护坡技术要点及工程的主要形式，分析了传统护坡的局限性。在华南地区开展了河流生态护坡技术因地制宜集成应用实践，并初步分析了生态护坡对河流生态环境和景观的影响，其改善河流生态环境及景观的效果较好，建设与维护成本较低、施工简单。将生态护坡技术综合应用于城镇河流环境综合整治具有明显的社会效益和环境效益。 River ecosystems do play a dramatically significant role in the ecological environment of watershed. Functional location and structural analysis of the rivers are the prerequisite for the comprehensive remediation and ecological restoration of river environment. In view of the current situation that comprehensive remediation is going to be implemented on the river environment, the main technical points and the main forms of the river ecological revetments at home and abroad were discussed, and the limitations of the conventional slope protection were analyzed. The application of ecological revetment technology integrated with local conditions has been carried out in the South China region, and the effects of ecological slope protection on the river ecological environment and landscape have been analyzed initially. The impact of ecological environment and landscape enhancing is evidently fabulous; the cost of construction and maintenance is relatively low, as well as construction process can be performed readily. The comprehensive application of ecological revetment in urban river environment has manifest social and environmental benefits.

Evaluation of Stability for Ecological Revetment Method with Stone Mattress and Vegetation Mound Using ANSYS Fluent

Currently, different types of revetment are installed in urban stream and various revetment methods are developed to improve the resistance to flow in order to reduce damage against flood. Especially, an eco-friendly revetment structure has a structural vulnerability against flood; however there are several theoretical and experimental technical issues to improve structural capacity. This research used computational program, ANSYS Fluent CFD, in order to evaluate the stability of ecological revetment, where stone mattress and vegetation mound are applied to protect in an extreme flood. In the result of numerical simulation, the velocity was decreased comparing to the central area of channel around the vegetation mound located at the bottom of stone mattress. The stable flow section at the downstream of stone mattress shows different according to the flow condition. If the vegetation mound is located at a section having minimum flow velocity, the erosion damage will be minimized.

Evaluation on ecological restoration capability of revetment in inland restricted channel

Jiangsu Province has the longest inland restricted waterway among all the provinces in China. Ecological revetment is the hot topic of current research on the river or channel regulation engineering in China. Evaluation of ecological restoration capability of revetment is an important part of revetment design as well as an effective basis of the revetment selection. Liudaxian channel of Jiangsu province is chosen for this study, an index system and method for evaluating of ecological restoration capability of revetment is established. By analyzing the mechanism and process of revetment impact on river ecosystems, indicators of ecological restoration capability and quantitative calculation method are proposed in revetment structure level. Based on the degree of influence of the indicator to river ecological function, instead of expert opinion, the set value iteration method was used to analyze the degree of influence of the indicator to river ecosystem, which made weight assignments objectively. Combining with gray relational analysis (GRA) method, the set value iteration based on ecological theory - gray correlation evaluation model was established, which achieved quantitative evaluation of the ecological restoration of revetment. The evaluating result of the projects shows that revetment of wood pile with ladder-sand tube + three-dimensional vegetation net is chosen as the recommended slope protection measure. The revetment ecological restoration evaluation model proposed in this paper with the advantages of objective, standardized and quantitative, offers an effective and feasible tool for designers and managers to evaluate the ecological restoration capability of revetment.

City River Ecological Restoration Technology and Application Study

through the introduction of the seven functions of city canal, artificial environment construction to find the existence of city canal construction material watertightness, surrounding buildings, excess production and living activities influence, influence city canal causes ecological damage; analysis of the structure characteristics of city ecological system of canals, puts forward the water self-repairing, biological floating island,ecological revetment combining city canal ecological restoration technology; to put forward suggestions for sustainable construction of city canal.