G. Mathias Kondolf

Hydrology; environmental planning; river restoration; urban river management; river-basin scale sustainable sediment management; strategic planning for hydroelectric dams.

There is something vital about rivers, and irresistible.  Whether seeking the flash of a salmon, or feeling your boat pulled into the next rapid, or falling asleep to the sound of water roaring down a steep mountain channel, moving water exerts strong magic on most of us, inspiring no shortage of analogies (life is a river, you cannot step in the same river twice).  Within cities, rivers provide compelling opportunities for open space, ecological restoration, and community gathering – especially as former industrial waterfronts become accessible to human populations. In rural areas, we can step back from rivers to allow them room to erode, deposit, and thereby create their own complex channel forms and riparian forests – the ‘espace de liberté’ concept.  In my classes, I emphasize understanding of physical and ecological process and river history as a basis for restoration strategy and management of riverine lands, the need to learn from management interventions, and the role of science in addressing land-use and resource management challenges.  In the developed world, substantial investments in environmental controls and restoration have led to improvements in air and water quality, but in the Global South we see accelerated deterioration as rivers are increasing polluted by land-use impacts and urban effluents.  A planned doubling of hydropower generation anticipated in the next two decades will lead to increased river disconnection by dams, cutting off vital sediment supplies to downstream reaches and deltas, unless we approach dam planning strategically, at the river basin scale, and consider alternative energy sources that are more sustainable than hydropower.

G. Mathias (Matt) Kondolf is a fluvial geomorphologist and professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at UC Berkeley. He teaches environmental planning, environmental science, and river restoration, and conducts research on human-river interactions, managing flood-prone lands, urban rivers, managing sediment in rivers and reservoirs, and river restoration. His more than 200 scientific articles and books have received over 25,000 citations (google scholar). Matt received the award for Excellence in Research and Creative Work from the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, and an Honor award from the American Society of Landscape Architects for work of students in his studio. Matt served on two National Academy of Science panels, the Calfed Ecosystem Restoration Science Board, and the Environmental Advisory Board to the Chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers (two terms). He provided expert testimony before the US Supreme Court, US Congress, California legislature, California Water Resources Control Board, International Court of Justice (the Hague), Permanent Court of Arbitration (the Hague), and other legal proceedings in the US. He received his PhD in Geography and Environmental Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, an MS in Earth Sciences from University of California Santa Cruz, and an AB cum laude in Geology from Princeton University.

LD ARCH 12 Environmental Science for Sustainability

LD ARCH 205 Environmental Planning Studio

LD ARCH 222 Hydrology for Planners

LD ARCH 227 River and Stream Restoration

PROFESSIONAL SHORT COURSE

Geomorphic and ecological fundamentals for river and stream restoration. Week-long short course offered annually at Sagehen Creek Field Station, Truckee.

Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Excellence in Research

Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Award of Distinction

Landscape Architecture Foundation, Fellow

Fulbright Commission, research fellowships to France, Portugal

EURIAS Fellowship Programme & European Commission (Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions) senior research fellowship

Aspen Italia Institute, Award for collaborative research US-Italy

Institute for Water Resources, US Army Corps of Engineers, Washington DC, Clarke Scholar.

American Society of Landscape Architects, Honor Award, faculty advisor for Working with beaver engineers

Kondolf, G.M., Herbert, B., Dodd, A. and Serra-Llobet, A., 2025. Flood Control in Jackson, Mississippi: A Missed Opportunity to Reduce Inequitable Flooding Impacts? Water (20734441), 17(4).

Yi, S. and GM Kondolf. 2024. Environmental planning and the evolution of inter-basin water transfers in the United States. Frontiers in Environmental Science. 12:1489917. doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1489917

Chua, S.D.X., Y. Yang, GM Kondolf, C Oeurng, T Sok, S Zhang, and Lu, X.X. 2024. Can restoring water and sediment fluxes across a mega-dam cascade alleviate a sinking river delta? Science Advances, 10(18), p.eadn9731.

Zhang, L. and Kondolf, G.M., 2024. Ponds and wetlands landscapes of flood management in the cities of the Lower Yellow River Floodplain—the case of Huaiyang, China. Water, 16(5), p.703.

Serra-Llobet, A., Radke, J., Kondolf, G.M., Gurrola, L., Lindbergh, S. and Douvinet, J. 2023. Floods after fires: A history informed hazard planning approach applied to the 2018 debris flows, Montecito, California. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 11, p.1183324.

Keenan-Jones, D, A Serra-Llobet, H He, GM Kondolf. Urban development and long-term flood risk and resilience: experiences over time and across cultures. 2023. Urban Studies.

Kondolf, GM, RJP Schmitt, P.A. Carling, M. Goichot, M. Keskinen, M.E. Arias, S. Bizzi, A. Castelletti, T.A. Cochrane, S.E. Darby, M. Kummu, P.S.J. Minderhoud, D. Nguyen, H.T. Nguyen, N.T. Nguyen, C. Oeurng, J. Opperman, Z. Rubin, D.C. San, S. Schmeier, T. Wild. 2022. Save the Mekong Delta from drowning. Science 376 (6593): 583-585. DOI: 10.1126/science.abm5176

Kondolf, GM, J Yi. 2022. Dam renovation to prolong reservoir life and mitigate dam impacts. Water 14(9), 1464.

Serra-Llobet A, Jähnig SC, Geist J, Kondolf GM, Damm C, Scholz M, Lund J, Opperman JJ, Yarnell SM, Pawley A, Shader E, Cain J, Zingraff-Hamed A, Grantham TE, Eisenstein W and Schmitt R. 2022. Restoring Rivers and Floodplains for Habitat and Flood Risk Reduction: Experiences in Multi-Benefit Floodplain Management From California and Germany. Front. Environ. Sci. 9:778568. doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2021.778568

Kondolf, GM, and S Bizzi. 2022. Stream geomorphology. pp 249-257 in Encyclopedia of Inland Waters 2nd Edition, T Mehner and K Tockner, editors. Elsevier.

Serra-Llobet, A, GM Kondolf, F Magdaleno, D Keenan-Jones. 2022. Flood diversions and bypasses: benefits and challenges. WIRES Water 2022;9:e1562.

Kondolf, GM, G Descombes, A Zingraff-Hamed. 2021. Restoring dynamic fluvial processes in urban rivers: learning from the Isar and Aire Rivers. Landscape Architecture Frontiers 9(4): 10-27

Ciotti, DC, J McKee, KL Pope, GM Kondolf, MM Pollock. 2021. Process-based design criteria for restoring fluvial systems. Bioscience 7 (1): 831-845.

Parrinello, G, GM Kondolf. 2021. The social life of sediment. Water History.

Pinto, PJ, GM Kondolf. 2020. The fit of urban waterfront interventions: matters of size, money and function. Sustainability 12: 4079.

Kondolf, GM. 2018. The Aire’s free space: a geomorphic perspective. pp.169-179 in Aire: The River and Its Double, Superpositions, Park Books, Zurich. 

Kondolf, GM, P Pinto. 2017. The social connectivity of urban rivers.Geomorphology 277:182-196. 

Kondolf, G.M., and H. Piégay, eds. 2016. Tools in fluvial geomorphology, second edition. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester UK, 560 pp. 

Kondolf, G.M. 2012. The espace de liberté and restoration of fluvial process: When can the river restore itself and when must we intervene? River Conservation and Management, P. Boon & P. Raven, editors. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester. pp.225-242.