Evidence synthesis and analysis of river restoration effort in Newfoundland and Labrador

The collection, synthesis, and evaluation of restoration projects is a challenge for several reasons. Data on restoration projects is fragmented and/or incomplete. The lack of data renders any description or evaluation of restoration efforts in the Province impossible. This project aims to fill that knowledge gap by building a database by cataloguing all NL projects for the last 30 years. In addition, to the project database, the research team will undertake a confidential survey with restoration practitioners from across the Newfoundland and Labrador with the goals of assessing project motivations, metrics of project evaluation and estimating the proportion of projects that set and meet criteria for ecologically successful river restoration projects. The development of the database and the practitioner’s survey will produce three peer-reviewed paper: (1) Evidence synthesis of river restoration efforts (2) Results from a survey of river restoration practitioners, and (3) An analysis of the ecological, social and political factors influencing river restoration in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Contact: Dr. Michael van Zyll de Jong, 506 648 5630, mvan3@unb.ca