Timber sheet pile walls are widely used for the protection of stream banks in different parts of the world. However, there is a tendency to create more sustainable types of stream banks not only because exploitable wood is more difficult to obtain, but also because of disturbance to the natural habitat of plants and animals due to hard embankments. In the Netherlands alone, about 2500 km of engineered timber sheet pile wall embankments exist, primarily made with tropical hardwood, besides an even much larger amount of ‘non-engineered’ small-size timber-based embankments. As an alternative, the authors propose to use a mixed timber sheet pile-vegetation system, where locally available timber can be applied in combination with natural vegetation. Unlike the usual bioengineering scheme, vegetation is not seen as an element, which could replace the timber sheet piles. Instead, a new perspective is tested, where the vegetation is included as a ‘structural’ element which can even counteract the consequences of time-dependent biological degradation of the timber sheet pile. By doing so, both long-term durability as well as reliability of the stream bank is improved. A comprehensive design strategy was developed based on well-established sub-models from the literature on plant growth, root reinforcement as well as timber damage accumulation. The timber sheet pile wall-vegetation system is illustrated in an example case study. Preliminary analysis including only the mechanical reinforcement of vegetation shows that there is a decrease in moment and shear acting on the timber sheet pile with growth of the vegetation. Consequently, the damage accumulation due to load duration effects on the timber decreases and the service life of the system increases. Thus, using vegetation in combination with highly degradable timber could possibly negate the need for using hardwood timber, or more generally, save resources that are currently used for these structures.

木片桩墙在世界各地被广泛用于保护溪流。但是，存在一种趋势，即建立更多可持续类型的河岸，这不仅是因为难以获得可利用的木材，而且还因为路堤坚硬对动植物的自然栖息地造成了干扰。仅在荷兰，就存在约2500公里的工程木材薄板桩墙路堤，主要由热带硬木制成，此外还有数量更多的“非工程”小型木材基路堤。作为替代方案，作者建议使用混合木片桩-植被系统，在该系统中，可以将本地可用的木材与自然植被结合使用。与通常的生物工程计划不同，植被不被视为要素，可以代替木材板桩。取而代之的是，测试了一个新的视角，将植被作为“结构性”元素包括在内，甚至可以抵消木材板桩随时间变化的生物降解的后果。通过这样做，改善了流束的长期耐久性以及可靠性。基于关于植物生长，根系加固以及木材破坏积累的文献中建立的子模型，开发了一种全面的设计策略。案例研究中说明了木板材桩墙植被系统。仅包括植被的机械加固的初步分析表明，随着植被的增加，作用在木片桩上的力矩和剪力减小。所以，负荷持续时间对木材的影响所造成的损害累积减少，系统的使用寿命增加。因此，将植被与高度可降解的木材结合使用可能会消除对使用硬木木材的需求，或更普遍地，节省当前用于这些结构的资源。