G. Mathias Kondolf

Professor (Landscape Architecture and Geography)
Ph.D. The Johns Hopkins University, 1988

My research and teaching focuses on rivers, their transformations by humans, their resilience and their active restoration. I work on a variety of rivers, including salmon-bearing rivers and Mediterranean-climate rivers, and effects of human alterations like dams, dredging, and gravel mining. In my work, I emphasize understanding of river processes (physical and ecological) and history as a basis for restoration strategy, the need to learn from each restoration project, and the need for scientific rigor when approaching restoration. My current research interests include (1) analysis of changes in land use, sediment delivery, and channel form since the 19th C in southeastern France, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River basin in California, and other Mediterranean-climate regions, (2) effects of dams on physical and ecological processes in rivers, and strategies for process-based ecosystem restoration, (3) sediment management in aging reservoirs, and (4) geomorphic/ecological post-project assessment of river restoration projects, and (5) land-use planning in flood-prone regions of California and Mississippi deltas, and integrating geomorphic insights into restoration strategies for these regions.

Selected publications

Kondolf, G.M., H. Piégay, and N. Landon. 2007. Changes since 1830 in the riparian zone of the lower Eygues River, France. Landscape Ecology 22:367-384.

Kondolf, G.M. River restoration and meanders. 2006. Ecology and Society.
[online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss2/art42/

Kondolf, G.M., A. Boulton, S. O'Daniel, G. Poole, F. Rahel, E. Stanley, E. Wohl, A. Bang, J. Carlstrom, C. Cristoni, H. Huber, S. Koljonen, P. Louhi, and K. Nakamura. 2006. Process-based ecological river restoration: Visualising three-dimensional connectivity and dynamic vectors to recover lost linkages. Ecology and Society 11 (2): 5.
[online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss2/art5/

Bernhardt, E.S., M.A. Palmer, J.D. Allan. G. Alexander, K. Barnes, S. Brooks, J. Carr, S. Clayton, C. Dahm, J. Follsted-Shah, D. Galat, S. Gloss, P. Goodwin, D. Hart, B. Hassett, R. Jenkinson, S. Katz, G.M. Kondolf, P.S. Lake, R. Lave, J.L. Meyer, T.K. O’Donnell, L. Pagano, B. Powell, and E. Sudduth. 2005. Sythesizing U.S. river restoration efforts. Science 308:636-637.

Kondolf, G.M., and H. Piégay, eds. 2003. Tools in fluvial geomorphology. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.

Kondolf, G.M., H. Piégay, and N. Landon. 2002. Channel response to increased and decreased bedload supply from land-us change: contrasts between two catchments. Geomorphology 45:35-51.

Kondolf, G.M., M.W. Smeltzer, and S. Railsback. 2001. Design and performance of a channel reconstruction project in a coastal California gravel-bed stream. Environmental Management 28(6):761-776.

Piegay, H., A. Thevenet, N. Landon, and G.M. Kondolf. 2000. Physical and human factors influencing potential fish habitat distribution along a mountain river, France. Geografiska Annaler 82 A (1):121-136.

Kondolf, G.M. 2000. Assessing salmonid spawning gravel quality. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 129:262-281.

Kondolf, G.M. 1998. Lessons learned from river restoration projects in California. Aquatic Conservation. 8:39-52

Further information on the internet:http://landscape.ced.berkeley.edu/~kondolf/

G. Mathias Kondolf

Selected publications

Contact information

Courses