River construction is a common practice in built environments near rivers, such as cities, pipeline or highway crossings, or other structures within river channels. These activities will disturb fine sediments that become suspended in flow and are transported downstream, which may be harmful to aquatic ecosystems.
Construction activities can be completed quickly and release sediment with high intensity over a short duration or be completed slowly and release sediment with less intensity over a long duration. There is currently no framework to understand which of these alternatives is more desirable as the exposure-response relationships in fish and other organisms is uncertain.
This work interpreted data that examined fish responses resulting from varying suspended sediment exposures to develop a framework for achieving desirable environmental and economic outcomes from river construction projects.