I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the FGM workshop. There were a number of great talks and the organizers of the event have done a nice job of making all the PowerPoint presentations available online here:
http://wrrc.umass.edu/fgm-presentations
If there were one file to view, I would suggest looking at Mike Kline’s presentation. A good chunk of this blog has been about various tools that are available to better understand the hydrologic and geomorphic settings of a project site. What I like about Mike’s presentation is that it highlights the benefits that can be realized from a fluvial geomorphic assessment. FEMA’s flood insurance maps are (as the name suggests) designed for the insurance market. A fluvial geomorphic assessment and resulting fluvial erosion hazard map, indicates the areas within a valley context that are subject to erosion hazards. In some settings, this will be narrower than a mapped FEMA floodplain, and in other places, it will be wider. Vermont’s fluvial geomorphic assessments and subsequent river corridor plans provides water quality, habitat and public safety benefits. They provide important context for restoration projects and they help prioritize restoration projects as well. That’s the real benefit of the program. Getting to where Vermont is took several years, dozens of partners were hired to walk the streams and load the data into the database, and several VT DEC staff have worked hard at leveraging that data by writing river corridor plans and making the data available via an online map viewer.
The main thrust of the FGM workshop was to start to generate some interest in developing a program similar to what Vermont has developed. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Massachusetts will be able to follow suit.
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The Channel Restorationist 