Zan Rubin

University of California, Berkeley | UCB · Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

Large-scale ecosystem restoration projects seldom undergo comprehensive evaluation to determine project effectiveness. Consequently, there are missed opportunities for learning and strategy refinement. Before our study, monitoring information from California’s middle Sacramento River had not been synthesized, despite restoration having been ongoing...

The Mekong River, largely undeveloped prior to 1990, is undergoing rapid dam construction. Seven dams are under construction on the mainstem in China and 133 proposed for the Lower Mekong River and tributaries. We delineated nine distinct geomorphic regions, for which we estimated sediment yields based on geomorphic characteristics, tectonic histor...

In May 2003, a breach in a large irrigation ditch within Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) initiated a debris flow that entered Lulu Creek and the Colorado River, where 36 000 m3 of sediment substantially altered channel forms and processes. We present a proof of concept to understand whether the 2003 disturbance is within the historical range of...

Evaluation of historic range of variability (HRV) is an effective tool for determining baseline conditions and providing context to researchers and land managers seeking to understand and enhance ecological function. Incorporating HRV into restoration planning acknowledges the dynamic quality of landscapes by allowing variability and disturbance at...

Owing to only a few decades of human influence and unsustainable management of the Mekong River basin’s natural resources, the Mekong Delta is receding rapidly. Most of the delta landform, home to 17 million people and an economic powerhouse, could slip below sea level by 2100. Avoiding such a catastrophic impact will require concerted actions that...

Two decades after the construction of the first major dam, the Mekong basin and its six riparian countries have seen rapid economic growth and development of the river system. Hydropower dams, aggregate mines, flood-control dykes, and groundwater-irrigated agriculture have all provided short-term economic benefits throughout the basin. However, it...

With changing climate and rising seas, proliferation of hydroelectric dams, instream sand mining, dyking of floodplains, accelerated subsidence from groundwater pumping, accelerated sea-level rise, and other anthropic impacts, it is certain that the Mekong Delta will undergo large changes in the coming decades. These changes will threaten the very...

The Lower Colorado River Multi‐Species Conservation Program (MSCP) is charged with restoring habitat for 26 species such as the southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) impacted by water development projects on the river. As of 2015, the MSCP had spent $200 million to create 1,200 hectares of habitat at nine sites, but the benefi...

Two decades since calls for stream restoration projects to be scientifically assessed, most projects are still unevaluated, and conducted evaluations yield ambiguous results. Even after these decades of investigation, do we know how to define and measure success? We systematically reviewed 26 studies of stream restoration projects that used macroin...

Large-scale sediment control efforts on the Loess Plateau of China and resulting reductions in sediment yield have been documented. However, it remains unclear how these control works affect the soil erosion rates and sediment loads at the catchment scale. A combination of field work and modeling exercises was used to examine the effects of land us...

The Mekong River is undergoing rapid dam construction. Seven mainstem dams are completed or under construction in China and 133 completed or proposed for the Lower Mekong River basin. We combined geomorphic assessments of the Mekong channel and delta with models of sediment trapping by reservoirs to forecast geomorphic change. We expect the biggest...

As a result of demographic changes, forest cover in the southern French Prealp mountains has increased dramatically during the 20th century. Over the same time period stream morphology within these sub-Mediterranean mountain basins has also changed. At two mainstem locations and eight upstream tributary sites within the Toulourenc basin (~150 km2),...

The Upper Colorado River in Rocky Mountain National Park is dynamically adjusting to approximately 35,000 m3 of sediment introduced by a debris flow in May 2003. Bed material and sediment transport measurements since 2003 indicate that the debris flow source material is the dominant control on grain size distributions of bed material and bedload in...

The success of channel restoration rests in accurately assessing the context for, and goal of, restoration. This research aims to assess the historical range of variability of sedimentation rates and identify historic depositional environments, and to therefore contextualize the impacts of recent anthropogenic sediment inputs. In May 2003, a breach...