Bed sill

Bed sill in the Ybbs near Amstetten, Lower Austria
A crib wall serving as a bed sill

A bed sill, also called a ground sill or low weir, is a river training structure [de] running across a river transverse to the direction of flow, built to reduce bed erosion. Common forms of construction include stone rockfill, rows of driven piles, timber crib walls [de] and concrete sills.

Bed sills have the disadvantage that they cannot be passed by aquatic organisms. For this reason they are frequently rebuilt as:

Lenzi et al. (2003) state that the term "sill" applies to the lower structures (less than 1.5-2 m in height), and "check dam" is used for taller ones.

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