Restoring degraded rivers requires initial assessment of the fluvial landscape to identify stressors and riverine features that can be enhanced. We associated local-scale river habitat data collected using standardized national monitoring tools with modeled regional water temperature and flow data on mid-sized northwest U.S. rivers (30–60 m wide). We grouped these rivers according to quartiles of their modeled mean August water temperature and examined their physical habitat structure and flow. We then used principal components analysis to summarize the variation in several dimensions of physical habitat. We also compared local conditions in the Priest River, a river targeted for restoration of native salmonid habitat in northern Idaho, with those in other rivers of the region to infer potential drivers controlling water temperature. The warmest rivers had physical structure and fluvial characteristics typical of thermally degraded rivers, whereas the coldest rivers had higher mean summer flows and greater channel planform complexity. The Priest River sites had approximately twice as many deep residual pools (>50, >75, and >100 cm) and incision that averaged approximately twice that in the coldest rivers. Percentage fines and natural cover in the Priest were also more typical of the higher-temperature river groups. We found generally low instream cover and low levels of large wood both across the region and within the Priest River. Our approach enabled us to consider the local habitat conditions of a river in the context of other similarly sized rivers in the surrounding region. Understanding this context is important for identifying potential influences on river water temperature within the focal basin and for defining attainable goals for management and restoration of thermal and habitat conditions.

恢复退化的河流需要对河流景观进行初步评估，以确定可以加强的压力源和河流特征。我们将使用标准化国家监测工具收集的当地河流栖息地数据与美国西北部中型河流（30-60 m 宽）的模拟区域水温和流量数据相关联。我们根据模拟的八月平均水温的四分位数对这些河流进行了分组，并检查了它们的物理栖息地结构和流量。然后，我们使用主成分分析来总结物理栖息地几个维度的变化。我们还比较了 Priest River 的当地条件，这条河流旨在恢复爱达荷州北部的本地鲑鱼栖息地，并与该地区其他河流的情况进行比较，以推断控制水温的潜在驱动因素。最温暖的河流具有热退化河流的典型物理结构和河流特征，而最冷的河流具有更高的夏季平均流量和更大的河道平面图复杂性。普里斯特河遗址有大约两倍的深残留水池（>50、>75 和 >100 厘米）和平均约为最冷河流两倍的切口。Priest 的罚款百分比和自然覆盖率在温度较高的河流群中也更为典型。我们发现整个地区和普里斯特河内的河道覆盖率普遍较低，大型木材的含量较低。我们的方法使我们能够在周边地区其他类似大小河流的背景下考虑河流的当地栖息地条件。