American Ecological Engineering Society Annual Meeting

Throughout the United States, dam removal is quickly becoming a viable river restoration alternative as many dams have exceeded their useful life or are no longer needed. Likewise, alternative methods for water diversion and heightened interest in restoring natural stream processes have created opportunities to make dam removal feasible.

This course is designed to familiarize attendees with the various concepts involved with dam removal projects. We will present these concepts with several case studies of recent dam removal projects including:

Milltown Dam - Clark Fork River near Missoula, Montana
Savage Rapids Dam - Rogue River near Rogue River, Oregon
Chiloquin Dam - Sprague River near Chiloquin, Oregon
Gold Hill Dam - Rogue River near Gold Hill, Oregon
Brownsville Dam - Calapooia River near Brownsville, Oregon
Marmot Dam - Sandy River near Sandy, Oregon
Clatskanie Dam - Clatskanie River near Clatskanie, Oregon

This course is designed for professionals who want to gain a better understanding of dam removal from planning through construction and monitoring. Information will include both general information on the dam removal process as well as detailed examples from on-going and recently completed projects. The course will be useful for project managers, engineers, biologists, government agency personnel, regulatory personnel, soil and water conservation districts, irrigation districts and non-profit associations.

Sustainable Principles for Land Development and Water Solutions (June 23, morning classroom session (8:00am-11:45am), afternoon bus tour, 12:00-5:00pm),

Presenters:
Maria Cahill, Sustainable Site Specialist with Green Girl Land Development Solutions, Portland, OR.
Derek Godwin, Watershed Management Specialist with OSU Extension Service, Salem, OR.
Date: June 23rd
Time: 8:00 – 5:00

Logistics: Morning will be indoors, afternoon in the field, box lunch provided Vans or tour bus needed for transporting to field sites. Field sites include the Pringle Creek Community in Salem and the Oregon Gardens in Silverton. (Note: We will provide maps for self-guided tours of the Kelly Engineering building and green roof research project on campus. We don’t expect to have enough time to visit these sites during the workshop.)

Urban land development has been found to be the leading cause nation-wide of degraded water quality related to non-point source pollution. Sustainable development, green development and low impact development are all words used to describe various practices aiming to decrease development impacts on stormwater runoff and water quality. This workshop will provide an overview of sustainable principles related to land development, engage participants in analyzing impacts and opportunities for some case scenarios in Oregon, and equip attendees with basic design and planning principles and sources for more detailed information. Some of the practices and principles presented will include development layouts to protect natural resources and increase on-site infiltration, rain gardens, bioswales, porous pavement, LEED platinum certified housing, rainwater harvesting, wetland treatment of wastewater, summer stream flow enhancement, ecoroofs and green streets.

The workshop will include a combination of presentations, group exercises, facilitated discussions and field tour demonstrations. The indoor portion will be at the conference center in Corvallis. The field presentations and demonstrations will be at the Pringle Creek Community in Salem and the Oregon Gardens in Silverton. Workshop presenters have a combined 25 years of experience in watershed science, land use development and education. For more information on their background, you may visit their websites - http://www.greengirlpdx.com/index.htm and http://bee.oregonstate.edu/Faculty/godwin/index.htm.

Natural Treatment Systems and Agricultural Reuse (June 23, 12:00-5:500pm)

Natural treatment systems and agricultural reuse can provide critical services for municipal wastewater systems and rely upon engineering of ecological functions. Two innovative sites operating nearby will be visited, where project designers, operators, and researchers will describe the facilities past, present, and future to facilitate a lively discussion with the group. This tour and workshop will be led by staff from CH2M HILL, Oregon State University, the City of Woodburn, and the City of Salem

Approximately 1-1/2 hours will be spent on site at the Woodburn Wastewater Treatment Facility where the following project elements will be discussed and toured:

Poplar Tree Plantation for utilization of effluent irrigation and biosolids (80 ac plantation operating since 1999)
Natural Treatment Systems Pilots Studies (in operation since 2007)
High rate irrigation pilot for groundwater recharge
Constructed wetland pilot cell for effluent cooling and hyporheic discharge

Approximately 45 minutes will be spent at the City of Salem Natural Reclamation Facility where several wetland treatment facilities have been operated for pilot testing since 2004. The discussion and site walk will address the following facilities:

Vertical flow wetlands
Overland flow wetlands
Habitat wetland cells
Constructed wetland cells

Wireless Sensors and Sensing Networks Workshop (June 23, 9:00am-12:00noon)

This workshop is designed for those who are interested in adding wireless capability to their repertoire of field measurement techniques. It will provide a brief background on the capabilities and limitations of wireless sensing, with a focus on self-organizing mesh networks with real-time web data servers. It will also provide hands-on experience for students to set up and get data off a network of sensors. No specialized knowledge of sensors, radios, or web-interfaces will be required to participate.

LiDAR Remote Sensing Workshop (June 23, 1:00pm - 5:00pm)

Airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) has become an increasingly valuable tool for providing data to support engineering designs and analyses for ecosystem services. The base LiDAR-derived product of a high-resolution, high-accuracy bare earth digital terrain model allows for a number of engineering assessments ranging from flood hazard mapping to the impact of dam removal on channel morphology. LiDAR derived products serve as a springboard to inform additional modeling related to other landscape features such as vegetation and urban infrastructure.

This workshop is intended to familiarize participants with airborne LiDAR particularly the key considerations when incorporating the LiDAR data in design and planning projects intended to improve ecological services. Course content will include:

Introduction to airborne LiDAR, including acquisition technology and instrumentation: sensor capabilities, static geodetic controls, and ground check points.
Considerations for data acquisition, particularly the interplay between the physical, spatial and temporal characteristics of the study area (location, predominant land cover, terrain, prevailing weather and vegetation conditions – leaf-on/leaf-off - at targeted acquisition ).
Data processing and modeling procedures, Overview of the LiDAR processing workflow to include system calibration, ground point classification, QA/QC, and reporting. The session will cover the generation of basic products such as contour maps, model key-points, and digital elevation models.
Case studies, including integration with other spatially explicit data: Case studies in which LiDAR data have been pivotal to ecosystem engineering applications will be reviewed, with discussion of the project’s parameters for data acquisition as well as opportunities for data fusion (e.g., with ground-based LiDAR, bathymetric data, thermal infrared imagery, digital orthophotos).