본 연구의 목적은 하천복원 및 하천평가의 근거를 마련하기 위하여 국내 자연하천의 유형 및 특성을 연구하는것이다. 이를 위하여 국내 섬 지방을 제외한 전국의 다양한 자연하천 조사구 95개소를 선정하여, 각 조사구의 자연환경적, 물리적 및 식물⋅식생특성을 조사 및 분석하였다. 그 결과, 95개 조사구는 하천의 규모(4개 유형), 고도(3개 유형), 하상재료(5개 유형)에 의거 모두 24개 유형으로 분류할 수 있었다. 그리고 각 하천유형과 식물⋅식생출현성과 가장 상관성이 강한 환경인자인 고도에 따라서 24개 하천유형을 다시 평지(고도 200m미만), 산지(고도 200m이상 500m미만), 고산지(고도 500m이상)의 3개 유형으로 크게 구분하여 하천의 물리적 구조, 식물⋅식생적 특성을 비교하였다. 먼저 평지하천의 대표적인 특징은 고산지나 산지하천과 비교하여 하천규모는 크지만 하상재료는 작은 편이고, 홍수터가 잘 발달하는 계곡횡단면 형태가 많았으며, 하천규모가 클수록 횡단폭의 변화와 사주발달이 양호하고 사행성이 두드러지는 편이며, 대표적 식생은 버드나무군락이었다. 반면에 산지와 고산지하천은 평지하천에 비하여 하천규모가 작고, 하상재료는 굵고 거칠며, 계곡횡단면 형태는 홍수터가 발달하지 못하는 좁은 형태이었다. 또한 사행도나 사주발달도 평지하천에 비하여 미약하였다. 산지하천의 두드러진 대표식생은 졸참나무-, 굴참나무-, 때죽나무군락이었으며, 고산지하천에서는 소나무-, 신갈나무-, 물푸레나무군락이었다.
The purpose of this study is to identify the type and characteristics of the domestic natural streams in order to establish a basis for stream restoration and evaluation. To this end, 95 domestic natural stream areas, which have various natural environments, were selected except for the province of island and then the characteristics of natural environment, hydromorpholoy, plant and vegetation were investigated and analyzed in each stream area. As a result, 95 stream areas were classified into total 24 types according to 3 criteria such as stream size (4 types), altitude (3 types), bed material (5 types). Depending on altitude class that is the environmental factor showing the highest correlation with each stream types, the emergence of vegetation and plant, 24 stream types were reclassified into 3 types such as lowland (altitude less than 200m), mountain (altitude from 200m to 500m), highland (altitude more than 500m), and hydromorpholoy, plant and vegetation characteristics of each stream type were compared. First, when compared to the mountain and highland streams, the typical features of lowland streams were as follows: Stream size was large but bed material size was small and there were many valley forms where flood plane were developed well. In addition, the more large stream size was, the more cross-section width variability, bars and sinuosity were in good conditions. In lowland stream, epresentative vegetation community was Salix koreensis community. On the other hand, when compared to the lowland streams, the typical features of mountain and highland streams were as follows: Stream size was small but bed material was coarse-grained and its size was large. Mountain and highland streams valley form where flood plane was not developed well was narrow, and sinuosity and bars development were weak. Representative vegetation communities of mountain streams were Quercus serrata -, Quercus variabilis -, Styrax japonica community and representative vegetation communities of highland streams were Pinus densiflora -, Quercus mongolica -, Fraxinus rhynchophylla community