Four Mile Run Restoration Master Plan

Project Description

Over the past century, Four Mile Run has changed dramatically. Human development has transformed the channel and its watershed. A once relatively natural river corridor is now shaped and controlled by urban infrastructure, with resulting changes in channel form and decreased riparian vegetation buffer widths. Artificially elevated peak flows are currently confined within the flood control project boundaries.

The Four Mile Run Restoration Master Plan focuses on restoring a 2.3-mile levee corridor along the Potomac River.

Biohabitats, as a subconsultant to Rhodeside and Harwell, created design recommendations to increase ecological, aesthetic, and cultural values in and near the stream without diminishing its flood control capabilities. Biohabitats worked collaboratively to assess current ecologic, geomorphic and hydrologic conditions within the project area, create hydraulic models that assess the risk of flooding to nearby communities, and determine the feasibility of retrofitting flood control structures to enhance ecologic and geomorphic function and enhance wetland and riparian habitat along the length of the channel.