Principle and Consequences

Principle
Streams progress toward a state of dynamic equilibrium, where they balance discharge, sediment transport, and slope. BAS: Lane’s Balance.

Ignoring this principle will surely result in problems when designing channels. For example, in an urban stream with higher velocities, just because we rebuild the channel doesn’t mean we can ignore the discharges frequent to the channel. Designing a bed with a sediment size that is too small will cause the channel to erode and for fines to be washed downstream. Broadly defined, ignoring Lane’s balance can 1) make the channel unstable and 2) decrease water quality (increased sediment load). These two factors can make the stream unhabitable to ecology.