Hello Everyone
I just got a great description of Gabion Baskets also some contexts Gabion Baskets would be appropriate in this came from a discussion in the Watershed Restoration Group on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/384391798391982/ from Jan-Willem Jansens
Here it is
Jan-Willem Jansens Hi Jeremiah, Let me try to add my thoughts to this also, in an attempt to participate a bit more in the conversations. I have hardly ever chosen to work with gabions, but I see where they have their place. Water makes 3-D movements with oscillations up and down (waves) and sideways (meanders); the steeper the slope the stronger the vertical oscillation and the weaker the horizontal ones. As a result, flatter flows tend to meander more and steeper flows tend to cascade more. As far as I've traced it back, check dams, and later, the engineered form, gabions, were developed for steep mountain streams in the alps that typically have a cascading nature. Like with forestry techniques, these stream management techniques were replicated for US conditions in the 19th century. Unfortunately, they were promulgated outside their original ecological purpose conditions, such as in flat, sandy streams (including in the Sahara!), where they often failed due to the stream's meandering, rather than cascading movement. In such conditions, they tend to fill in behind them, get flanked, or undermined due to piping in the sandy bottoms. I have also seen that they can be very lasting in sandy bottom streams, to such an extent that they raise the grade so well that they cause dramatic meandering upstream due to a stream that becomes too flat and drops too much coarse sediment. But that's a design error rather than an error of the selection of the gabion as a technique. However, if used in cascading rather than meandering stream, and if well keyed-in, and designed with a spill way (notch in the dam) gabions may work well, especially where a large, strong structure us needed. They also work well in retaining walls, coffer dam constructions, and revetments, if well designed and properly installed, and if one is not put off by their non-naturalistic look. [JWJ]
Hope this gives everyone a better understanding of Gabion Baskets
cheers
Jeremiah
