The aim of revitalization projects is to return the existing channelized waterway to a state close to nature. In cities, but also in rural areas, the waterways were often straightened in the past, land was reclaimed and drained and riverbeds were stabilized using, for example, paving stones into concrete. In recent decades, this trend has been abandoned mainly because it turns out that these measures accelerated flood events and contributed to the drying out of the landscape.
Agricultural land was often protected by dykes at the expense of cities and these dykes were hit all the harder by floods. 

The revitalization measures return the much-needed water bodies to nature, be it wetlands, lakes, reservoirs or water course or river meanders. All these measures serve to retain water in the landscape and to return animal and plant species back to nature.
In the case of revitalizing in built-up areas, these measures must be developed with certain limits (for example, bank lining) that will keep the meandering stream within defined corridors. These close to nature measures serve not only animals, but also people for recreational purposes.

Revitalizations form an integral part of close to nature flood control measures.  

Revitalization of trained and untrained water streams restores ecological function of the watercourses and improves water quality.