The initial phases of a stream restoration project typically include a watershedgeomorphic assessment to classify, identify, and assess a variety of environmentalproblems that can occur over a fairly large geographic area. There are three phases ofgeomorphic assessment at the watershed-scale, including the desktop phase, thequalitative field study phase, and the quantitative field study phase. Each phasesuccessively offers more detailed information on system-wide instability; however,each phase also successively requires more resources to implement. An evaluation ofthe methods involved with each phase of assessment is needed to offer the restorationcommunity guidance on selecting a method or combination of methods that can beused to assess system-wide stability based on time and funding constraints. Thispaper examines existing quantitative and qualitative assessment techniques, thestrengths and weaknesses of those techniques, and their applicability to urban streamrestoration design. In particular, those methods that are most beneficial to urbanstream restoration are examined and how they can potentially be used to improve thestream restoration design effort by focusing on the watershed scale. An example ofthe selection and application of qualitative and quantitative assessment techniques toan urban stream restoration design in Bloomington, Indiana is also presented.
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