ABSTRACT
Rehabilitation has become a new activity involving returning a technically perfect but sterile river channel into something more natural. This chapter shows that safety and environmental aspects can be combined in a complementary fashion. The primary aims of the major river regulation works in Central Europe of the 19th and early 20th centuries were land reclamation, flood protection, and (in larger rivers) improvement of navigation. The erosion problem was an immediate consequence of the regulation scheme. However because it was to some extent a desired effect, it was some time later before more attention was given to the problem. The installation of the first steps, designed by water users and railway authorities, seemed to slow down the process. A relatively small modification of an existing straight, narrow channel with an erosion trend would be to widen the cross-section to reduce the transport capacity and thus increase the equilibrium slope.
