• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.359-369
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• 2015

Stream ecosystems are highly valued natural resources, however, stream environments are currently under threat in several respects. We evaluated vegetation and ecological characteristics according to different revetment types. The distribution of vegetation differed with revetment type, with a 42~45 taxa found in natural revetments, and 23~38 taxa in vertical revetments. Thus, natural revetments host more diverse vegetation than vertical revetments. We also found more plants belonging to the families Labiatae and Cyperaceae growing in natural revetments than in vertical revetments. We proposed that habitat space be apportioned to introduce annual plants as part of stream restoration projects. And, we identified 7 families and 18 taxa of naturalized plants, majority taxa were either biennial or perennial. Moreover, naturalized ratio was higher in vertical(14.3%) than natural(12.1%), we proposed a plan to promote and improve natural streams and revetments. Furthermore, we applied a waterfront evaluation method developed by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the USDA-NRCS, which confirmed that stream health can be improved in most regions by controlling naturalized plants and ensuring shrub and tree growth. We adopted a new method to remove naturalized plants and establish natural revetments to ensure shrub and tree growth to aid in small-stream restoration and improvement. In future studies, we hope to develop methods for small-stream restoration projects in rural areas.