Advanced LTPBR Design

Overview to CEWA/WATS 6627

This is the main resource page for the CEWA/WATS 6627 - Advanced LTPBR Design course offered at Utah State University. This course is part of an advanced series of courses on Low Tech Process Based Restoration (LTPBR) offered through USU and the Riverscapes Consortium. The course is designed to provide hands-on experience with LTPBR planning using QRiS and is a direct follow up to the Introduction to LTPBR Design in the Intro to LTPBR Spring Series.

Description: Advanced course in site-scale design of LTPBR project using Riverscapes Studio. Students will conduct desktop designs and prepare design report. One-week short course remotely over video meetings. Prerequisite recommendations: Students are recommended to be proficient in GIS.

info

This page appears here on the QRiS documentation site as QRiS users may find it helpful for self-guided learning.

CEWA/WATS 6627 - Syllabus

Fall 2026 - Syllabus on LTPBR USU Site.

Community

Community Page on Riverscapes Consortium for Advanced LTPBR CEWA Series 6626-6629

Event Page for 2025 Course

Event Page with Meeting Joining Details

Prerequisites and Preparing for Class

Background or Catch-Up Reading

We assume you have read and are familiar with Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 of the Design Manual. This was assigned in WATS 5623/CEWA 5623, but if you have not taken that course, please read it now. If you have not taken WATS 5623/CEWA 5623, you should watch the self-paced lecures.

This course will be focused on how we quantitatively use mapping and analysis in QRiS to build off of these concepts from the Intro to LTPBR Design course:

Module 4C

Leading Design with Recovery Space

Module 4D

Design Standards of Practice & Designing at Complex Scale

Module 4E

Learning how to Design at Structure Scale

Module 4F

Putting it all together in the field

Software Requirements

• Install QGiS and the QRiS and Riverscapes Viewer Plugins (see here).

warning

If you did not take the prerequisite planning course, please review the software installation instructions and ensure you have QGiS, the QRiS plugin, and the Riverscapes Viewer plugin installed and working before the first day of class. If you need help with this, please show up on first morning at 8:45 AM instead of 9:00 AM.

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Main Assignment

The main outcome of this workshop is to complete a LTPBR Design for a single phase of a project in a project reach of your choosing (preferably the site you used in the Planning Class) using QRiS.

You will:

1. Complete a Riverscapes LTPBR Design Report (through design section of template) with your supporting maps and analyses using QRiS. This report will be saved as a PDF, and added as an attachment to your Riverscapes Studio Project.
2. Update your QRiS Project from Planning Class, and export as updated Riverscapes Studio Project (or make new one if you don't yet have one) and publish to the Data Exchange. We do not advise your to do a design without having completed a planning assessment first. However, you can still do the technical steps of creating a design, it just will not be as well informed as it could be if you had done a planning assessment first.
3. Create or update a draft PBR Explorer Project Entry for Proposed Work. You can optionally make this private and part of a Data Exchange Organization you create that you give instructor access to.
4. Present a 10 minute presentation on last day of your project to the class.
5. Post a link to your presentation and Riverscapes Studio Project in the Riverscapes Consortium Community.

tip

Yes, you can build off what you started. For those of you that completed the WATS/CEWA 5623 Introduction to Planning Course, you will already have chosen a site, and have the start of a report and design. It is perfectly reasonable to pick up the old report and the same design and just re-do and expand a more througough analysis and design report using QRiS. It is also accepable to pick a new site and start fresh.

Those that have not taken WATS 5622 or did not complete that course assignment, will need to pick a site and write a report from scratch.

Formative Exercise - Sharing your proposed site

Submit your proposed site as Private PBR Explorer Project

Everyone will submit their proposed site as a Private PBR Explorer Project to a Data Exchange Organization we create and give you all access to. We will do this as in-class demo together on Monday.

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Resources

Community Resources

These communities from the Riverscapes Consortium are great places to ask questions, connect with colleagues and share your work.

Advanced CEWA LTPBR Series Community

The community for connecting with others in this class and the advanced series of Adavanced LTPBR courses.

Riverscapes Studio Users

Community of QRiS Users. Stay up to date on latest releases, webinars, trainings, ask questions and share your work.

LTPBR of Riverscapes - Practitioner Community

This community is intended to facilitate exchange between practitioners of LTPBR anywhere in the world.

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Assignment Resources

This section elaborates on some of the questions you engage with in the Design portion of Conservation Planning Process (CPP) adapted from Bennett et al. (2019) and outlined in Chapter 3 of the LTPBR Design Manual.

tip

If this class was in person, we would use Monday to approximate answers to these questions at the desktop and with freely available data. We would use Tuesday to get out in the field, see how good our desktop design was, fill in gaps of our ounderstanding from the desktop, and refine our design based on on-the-ground assesment. Then we would use Wednesday to pull together both field and desktop evidence, and have a revised design. You can do this on your own with the riverscapes you work in.

Report Template

You can make your own report, or you can use this Google Docs template for the report. You can expand and refine the section headings as you see fit, but you need to minimally include these sections and answer the questions posed.

If you do use a Google Doc, please share it with your instructor(s), so they can give you suggestions when you submit your project. You may choose to add other students, or make it visible to those with the link.

We show you how to use it in this video:

note

When you submit your assignment, please do not submit it as a link to the Google Doc. Instead, export it as a PDF and submit the PDF as an attatchment in your Riverscapes Studio Project.

Using Zotero Cite While You Write Add-ON

Optional: Zotero is a powerful and free citation and bibliography manager (alternative to EndNote), which you can use to keep track of your citations. This help reference explains how to use Zotero with Google Docs. You will need Zotero Connector Extension installed in your browser for it tow work with Google Docs.

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In Class Exercises

Data for Exercises

tip

You do not need to download all of the projects listed here. We will instruct you in class, which projects you need to download to complete exercises. Many of these are for demos, in which you don't need to download the projects, but we include them for your reference.

Fall Creek Demo - Riverscapes Studio Projects

Riverscapes Studio Collection with Starter, Full Planning Project, and Design for Fall Creek, Wyoming with context layers.

Fall Creek - Riverscape Models for Context

Collection of Riversapes Context and Valley Bottom and Antro Projects from Data Exchange

Bailey Flat

Demo project in South Central Oregon. This multiphase project was created to show how multiple DCEs from monitoring efforts result in an analysis of metrics.

Willow Springs

Demo project on Wychus Creek in Sisters, Oregon. This project was curated to explore how QRIS stores and organizes multiple phases of Designs, As-Builts, and DCEs.

Birch Creek

Demo Project in Southern Idaho. This project spans many years with the goal of using beaver to return perennial flow to Birch Creek, a simple but effective example of organizing data and keeping track of a timeline in QRIS.

Spawn Creek

Demo project on Spawn Creek (tributary to the Logan River) in Northern Utah. This project was created to track beaver dams over time after the introduction of a cattle exclosure.

Wall Creek

Demo project on Wall Creek in Oregon. This project was created to demonstrate riverscape planning and design for BLM and partners.

In class, we will work through exercises to practice the steps of LTPBR Planning using QRiS. We will use freely available datasets from the Riverscapes Data Exchange to create a QRiS project for a hypothetical assessment of Fall Creek, Wyoming.

tip

In general, you will be expected to apply what we cover in exercises to your own project for the assignment.

A. A Design from Scratch

In this first exercise, you will build a very simple design in QRiS. The design problem is as follows:

We will take you to Birch Creek, Idaho - before the Jay Wilde story has unfolded. Before the beaver were brought back. Your task is to create a design for the translocation of beaver into this riverscape. You know the Birch Creek riverscape has a high capacity to support beaver dam activity, and human-beaver conflicts are acknowledged but not a problem the land manager (USFS) is uncomfortable with. You are to design three complexes - each consisting of one primary BDA and one secondary BDA. Beaver will be released into the middle complex. The upstream and downstream complexes are simply to give them a choice to stop at if they leave the complex they are released into. The BDAs are simply met to provide temporary safety and cover and take advantage of their opportunistic nature.

You will start with an empty QRiS project, you will bring in a Riverscape, create a LTPBR Design, and hypothesize your zone of influence - ZOI.

1. Locate where we want to work. Use this PBR Explorer Reference project to navigate to Data Exchange, and grab the project ID for a VBET project at this location. Filter Project Type to VBET and select latest version for Battle Creek-Bear River.
2. Get there with some context. Open QGIS, and using Riverscapes Viewer, go to Download Riverscape Project and past in the VBET project ID you copied above. Specify where to download it to (I am using c:\0_RS\0_CEWA6627 for this class), and proceed to download.
3. Find the USFS Boundary. You will see that you have a valley bottom for the entire HUC 10 watershed loaded into the map. Next we will locate the USFS boundary in Birch Creek. To do this, go back to the VBET project in Data Exchange. Click on the project. Switch to the 'Related' tab, and filter projects to Riverscapes Context. Copy the project ID for the latest Riverscapes Context. Come back to QGIS. Using Riverscapes Viewer, go to Open Remote Project and paste in the project ID.
4. Bring it into your Map In the remote Riverscapes Context project, in the Riverscapes Viewer panel, navigate to 'Land Management' and add the 'Land Ownership' layer to the map with a right click. Then pan and zoom into identify the USFS boundary on Birch Creek.
5. Make a QRiS Projec.t Next you will create an empty QRiS project. From QRiS toolbar, goto Project → Create new QRiS Project. Give it a name, and use the ... to specify the parent folder location (e.g. c:\0_RS\0_CEWA6627 as you did above for download). Click OK when done.
6. Delineate a Watershed as Clipping Mask. - Right click on your cathcment and Promote to AOI.
7. Import the Valley Bottom as Riverscape. QRiS works based on having 'riverscapes' mapped. We will be lazy and import a model derived valley bottom instead of delineating or mapping our own. Navigate in the Riverscapes Viewer to your VBET for HUC 1601020204 project and find the Valley Bottom Extent (Hollow) layer and right-click on it and Add to QRiS. Add it as a 'Riverscape', and under the Clip to AOI option, specify your catchment AOI. Allow it to add to the map and start an edit session.
8. Edit Riverscape to only include Birch Creek. In an edit session, select Birch Creek, then use the Invert Selection command and then the Delete so that you only have one riverscape.
9. Know something about your riverscape - acres and miles. Check the properties of your riverscape to report the miles. Right click on your riverscape and Generate a Centerline to see how long it is.
10. Make your Design. Right click on Data Capture Event and create a new Design (see video).
11. Make a prediction about your Design's ZOI. - Where will be the zone of influence of the beaver from your work? Draw it.
12. Revel in your effiency. Congratulations, you made a design. You said what to do where. You even made a prediction. But you may have no idea why you specified what you did. You may not have a ton of confidence in your prediction. You just learned some of the "how to" on the techncial doing. Now it is time to unpack why you did what you did and how you think more deeply about your designs and what they need to convey.

And here's a video of that:

B. Informing and Leading Design with Planning: Recovery Space, Resource Inventory & Conditions

1. Review of recovery space, Risk Assessment, and Geomorphic Units from previous class and how they apply as context to inform the designing process.
   • Geomorphic Units: valley bottom (channel, active floodplain, inactive floodplain) and valley (terrace, moraine, alluvial & colluvial fans) geomorphic units (i.e., building blocks of the riverscape). For designs, we are interested in converting inactive floodplains to either active floodplain or active channel.
   • Active Margins: abutment of channel against valley bottom, valley, and/or anthropogenic margin. For designs, we will avoid these locations as they have limited recovery space and can pose potential risks to infrastructure (if listed as anthropogenic margin).
   • Risk Potential: infrastructure, land use, and other anthropogenic features that should be avoided in restoration implementation especially when classified at medium to high risk.
   • Recovery Space: portion of valley bottom available to become or remain "active" (channel(s) and/or floodplain) and in which restoration practices and structure implementation can be installed and influence (i.e., where the design will be implemented at).

C. Adding A Design to QRiS

1. Right click on Data Capture Events, select Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration, and click on Add New Design.
2. Name your design project (e.g., Phase 1 Design)
3. Add relevant design layers to your project from the LTPBR Design Protocol V3 in the Layers panel.
4. Fill out metadata values under Basic Properties, including Associated Valley Bottom, Project Phase, Design Date(s), Design Status, *Designers, and Design Sources relevant to your project.
5. Under Bases for Design, select raster layers and/or Data Capture Events that will be used as context for your design.
6. (Optional) Fill out descriptive narratives (project goals, riverscape constraints, etc.) and other relevant details (web links, YouTube videos, etc.) about your design under the Description and Metadata tabs.

D. Overview of Design Layers

1. Once your design is created and is displayed in the Data Capture Events bin, right click on it and select Add All Layers to the Map.
2. Layers in LTPBR Design Protocol v3
   • Design Elements
     • Structure Points: point feature(s) of design structure; shows location of structure
     • Structure Lines: line feature(s) of design structure; shows location, length, and orientation of structure
     • Project Sub-Reaches: polygon that splits your project area by sub-reaches and their primary and secondary objectives
     • Recovery Space: polygon that shows how much space is availabe for potential recovery
     • Complex Zones of Influence: polygon that shows the extent and type of ZOI for a grouping of structures
     • Structure Zones of Influence: polygon that shows the anticipated effect and extent (either hydraulic or geomorphic) that an individual structure will have
   • Contruction Logistics
     • Source Building Materials: polygon that shows locations and types of material that could be sourced during construction
     • Limits of Construction: polygon intended as a lasso around all the structures in a design to convey the areas where construction will occur
     • Limits of Distrubance: polygon intened as a lasso around all construction logistics and deisgn elements that conveys all the areas where disturbance to the riverscape may occur
     • Staging Areas: polygon that shows areas where material and equipment will be stored
     • Access Routes: line layer that represents the intended routes that will be used to access construction and staging areas

E. Structure Scale Design & ZOIs

1. Toggle on Editing for the Structure Lines layer to digitize PALS - Bank Blaster Structures (see slides 16-24 in Module E). Right click when done to open the attribute window.
2. Select PALS - Bank Blaster from dropdown menu under Structure Type for each structure digitized.
3. Once complete, turn off Editing for the Structure Lines layer and select the Zones of Influence (ZOI) layer and toggle on Editing for that layer.
4. Digitize ZOI for the Bank Blaster Structures and right click when done to open the attribute window.
5. Select Structure: Geomorphic - Erode Bank under the dropdown menu for ZOI Type and Typical Flood under the dropdown menu for Stage.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 to add Primary & Secondary BDAs. For step 2, we will select Primary BDA & Secondary BDA for Structure Type and for step 5, we will select Structure: Hydraulic - Overflow & Structure: Hydraulic - Ponding Flow for ZOI Type for digitized BDA features.

F. Complex Scale Design & ZOIs

1. We will repeat steps 1-5 in Section D to digitize design structures except we will be doing this for multiple complexes with stated objectives instead of at the structure scale (see slide 36 in Module 4D as example).
2. Once all design features are digitized, we will then digitize complex ZOIs by selecting the Zones of Influence layer and toggle on Editing.
3. After digitizing the ZOI, right click to bring up the attribute window and select Complex: Pond/Wetland Creation for ZOI Type and Baseflow for Stage.

G. Design Packaging

1. We will upload your completed design report to the Attachments bin in QRiS See slide 13 from Module 4D for more information on components for Design reporting.
2. Right click on the Attachments bin in the QRiS plugin window, and select Add New File Attachment.
3. Find where your design report is located and select it in the Browser window and click on Open.
4. In the Import Attachments Window, you can rename your report (or keep its default name) and click Ok.
5. We will update your QRiS project w/design report in the Data Exchange by following the same steps to upload a QRiS project to the Exchange except we will change Export Type in the Export Project window from New Riverscapes Studio Project to Update Existing Riverscapes Studio Project (see video below for the full upload process).

H. As-Builts

Overview of ArcGIS Online (AGOL) Products that collect offline as-built data (FieldMaps & Survey123) and how offline layers are organized

Importing AGOL Offline Data into QRiS

1. Download offline data and add to QGIS project (in this example, offline data was downloaded from AGOL Experience Builder)
2. Right click on Data Capture Events bin, select Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration and click on Add New As-Built Survey to create a new as-built event.
3. Select the relevant as-built layers you want to add from the As-Built Protocol to the Layers in Use panel.
4. Fill out relevant metadata values under Basic Properties, including Valley Bottom, Associated Design, As-Built Phase, Survey & Construction Date(s), Observerors, and Survey Sources relevant to your project.
5. Under Bases for As-Built, select raster layers and/or Data Capture Events that will be used as context for your as-built.
6. (Optional) Fill out descriptive narratives and other relevant details about your as-built under the Description and Metadata tabs.
7. Once complete, right click on the newly created as-built event in the Data Capture Events bin and select Add All Layers to the Map.
8. Expand the As-Built Event and right click on the the Structure Points/Lines layer, select Import Features From..., and click on Layer in Map.
9. Select the layer that contains your survey data.
10. A new window will appear where you can copy structure values from your survey date and add those to your QRiS As-Built. To do so, find the field that contains the structure type values in your survey data and click on the Assign button under the Transfer Values field.
11. Another window will appear where you can correlate the structure type values in your survey data to the ones listed in the As-Built Protocol.
12. Click Ok once you are done assigning values.
13. (Optional) You can also assign other fields as notes/comments by check marking the box next to Notes under the Copy Values field for the relevant field storing notes/comments. You can also keep any field in your survey data as metadata (i.e., added as seperate field in QRiS).
14. Click Ok once you are done assigning values and the Structure Points/Lines layer should populate with features.

Exporting QRIS Data to As-Built Survey in AGOL

1. Create a temporary Geopackaage to store QRiS As-Built data by right clicking on any folder in the Browser panel, selecting New, and clicking on Geopackage.
2. Click and drag As-Built Structure Points/Lines layer(s) from the Layer panel and drop into the newly formed geoapckage.
3. Open ArcPro and add AGOL As-Built survey to map.
4. Add the QRiS data stored in the geopackage to the map by finding the geopackage, expanding it, and dragging the layer(s) into the map.
5. Find the Append tool.
6. Once opened, fill out the Target Dataset with your AGOL As-Built data, the Input Datasets with your QRiS data, and select the Use the field map to reconcile field differencex option under Field Matching Type.
7. Align the QRiS fields with the corresponding AGOL fields by selecting the pencil icon under each field and selecting the appropriate field in the popup window that appears.
8. Click Run to append the dataset.

Resources

Example As-Built Survey for Survey123

Click here to download example xlsx form for Survey123 As-Built.

Example Cartographic Reports

Click here to see example cartographic reports of designs, as-builts, and monitoring.