1)Economic. Just fill the stone into the gabions and seal it.
2)Simple installation. No special technology needed.
3)Weather proof under natural destroy, corrosion resistant.
4)Sludge in the stones is good for plant growing. Mixed to form a integrity with the natural environment.
5)Good permeation can prevent the damage by hydrostatic. 
6)Less transport freight. It can be folded together for transport and further installation.

Gabions and Mattress Applications: 
The most common civil engineering use of gabions is to stabilize 
shorelines, stream banks or slopes against erosion. Other uses include
retaining walls, temporary floodwalls, silt filtration from runoff, for small
or temporary/permanent dams, river training, or channel lining.They
maybe used to direct the force of a flow of flood water around a vulnerable structure. Gabions are also used as
fish barriers on smallstreams.

A gabion wall is a retaining wall made of stacked stone
filled gabions tied together with wire. Gabion walls are usually battered,
or stepped back with the slope rather than stacked vertically.

Gabion baskets have some advantages over loose riprap because 
of their modularity and ability to be stacked in various shapes; 
they are also resistant to being washed away by moving water.
Gabions also have advantages over more rigid structures because they 
can conform to ground movement, dissipateenergy from flowing water, 
and drain freely. Their strength and effectiveness may increase with time 
in some cases, as silt and vegetation fill the interstitial voids and reinforce
the structure. They are sometimes used to keep stones which may fall
from a cutting or cliff from endangering traffic on a thoroughfare.