Making room for meandering
A meandering (winding through the landscape) stream (see photo below) can accommodate more water than a straightened stream, because a meandering stream is much longer and also has side channels and oxbow lakes. The water also flows less rapidly. A meandering stream constantly shifts its course (a natural stream valley process). The space required for this must be set aside in the stream valley.
If the banks of the (meandering) stream have been reinforced with stones, these must be removed to allow the meandering process to take place. If a stream has been straightened and deeply cut, and the banks are heavily silted up, additional earthworks or excavation may be required to allow the stream to meander again.
Natural solutions
- Developing natural grasslands
- Developing natural forests
- Food forest
- Making space for beaver activity
- Making room for natural floodplains
- Making room for meandering
- Raising the stream bed
- Lowering banks
- Removing drainage systems
- Planting scrub hedges and copses
- Standard orchard
- Wide infiltration strip
- Grafts
- Swales
- Keylines
- Converting (maize) fields on slopes into grassland or woodland
- Wadi
- Intercepting runoff on (sunken) roads