River Futures

An Integrative Scientific Approach to River Repair

Gary J. Brierley, Kirstie A. Fryirs, Gary J. Brierley, Kirstie A. Fryirs

• Publisher: Island Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781597261135, 9781597261128
• eBook ISBN: 9781610911054
• Topic: Scienze biologiche
• Subtopic: Scienze applicate

Across much of the industrialized world, rivers that were physically transformed and ecologically ruined to facilitate industrial and agricultural development are now the focus of restoration and rehabilitation efforts. River Futures discusses the emergence of this new era of river repair and documents a comprehensive biophysical framework for river science and management.

The book considers what can be done to maximize prospects for improving river health while maintaining or enhancing the provision of ecosystem services over the next fifty to one-hundred years. It provides a holistic overview of considerations that underpin the use of science in river management, emphasizing cross-disciplinary understanding that builds on a landscape template.

 

The book

• frames the development of integrative river science and its application to river rehabilitation programs
• develops a coherent set of guiding principles with which to approach integrative river science
• considers the application of cross-disciplinary thinking in river rehabilitation experiences from around the world
• examines the crossover between science and management, outlining issues that must be addressed to promote healthier river futures

Case studies explore practical applications in different parts of the world, highlighting approaches to the use of integrative river science, measures of success, and steps that could be taken to improve performance in future efforts.

River Futures offers a positive, practical, and constructive focus that directly addresses the major challenge of a new era of river conservation and rehabilitation—that of bringing together the diverse and typically discipline-bound sets of knowledge and practices that are involved in repairing rivers. It is a valuable resource for anyone involved in river restoration and management, including restorationists, scientists, managers, and policymakers, as well as undergraduate and graduate students.

PART I

The Emerging Process of River Repair

You can’t roll back history. You can create a sort of zoo or museum for people to glimpse the way things were—but you can’t return to another time.

Wheeler 1998, 17

Rivers and streams represent some of Earth’s most altered ecosystems. Across much of our planet, rivers bear little relation to the way they looked—and functioned—in the not-too-distant past. Flow regulation and river diversion have fragmented almost all major river networks, with devastating ecological consequences. Few rivers retain their natural riparian vegetation or loading of wood. Tens of thousands of river kilometers have been channelized. Most rivers now operate under fundamentally different conditions from those that existed prior to human disturbance.

A growing awareness of human-induced change and damage to river systems has prompted a shift in management programs toward strategies that strive to improve river health. A paradigm shift is underway, marking the transition away from “command and control” perspectives that engineered river systems for human purposes and toward an ecosystem perspective that strives to balance human needs with environmental values. This new way of thinking has a sustainability focus, striving to meet biodiversity needs while maintaining ecosystem services that meet human needs. Rather than trying to restore or reconstruct the past, river management in this era of river repair has a future focus, aiming to rehabilitate river systems.

The move toward an era of river repair is discussed in chapter 1. There is now significant investment in river conservation and rehabilitation projects across the world. Many of these efforts are characterized by a move away from projects that manage for a single species, involve engineering methods to alter channel morphology, or focus on a specific site/reach, and toward a holistic view that integrates crossdisciplinary themes within an ecosystem perspective. Today, effective river rehabilitation programs emphasize catchment-scale linkages, recognizing the multidimensional processes that are inherent components of functioning, dynamic, and self-sustaining ecosystems. Inevitably, these environmental perspectives must be balanced with socioeconomic and cultural values, the nature of which varies in differing parts of the world (see part III). Part II outlines the key components of integrative river science that are used to guide the process of river repair.

The visions we create express what we seek to achieve in the process of river repair. In chapter 2, ecosystem perspectives that give a voice for the environment, rather than merely expressing human and/or managerial aspirations, are framed in terms of the structural and functional attributes of river systems. However, these scientific perspectives cannot be meaningfully integrated into management plans unless they are appropriately related to social values. Hence, the rehabilitation process explicitly entails the merging of scientific and cultural values and aspirations, setting targets that are biophysically possible and socially acceptable. Our success in such exploits requires appropriate commitment to monitoring and auditing procedures, appraising and reframing the effectiveness of our efforts to improve river health.

Chapter 3 considers two major challenges that limit prospects for the process of river repair: “turbulence” and “train wrecks.” Turbulence refers to the challenges inherent in meaningfully connecting scientific perspectives within managerial pursuits, while train wrecks refers to prospective disasters that may ensue from inappropriately framed scientific perspectives, or inappropriate use of these insights. Mismatches of scale (both space and time), the mindsets associated with discipline-bound practices, and steps that can be taken to move beyond such thinking receive special attention. We hope that the integrative approach to the analysis of river systems promoted in this book will assist the next generation of river practitioners in moving beyond discipline-bound thinking and management applications.

REFERENCE

Wheeler, R. S. 1998. The buffalo commons. New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates.

Chapter 1

Moves Toward an Era of River Repair

GARY J. BRIERLEY AND KIRSTIE A. FRYIRS

Despite our dependence on healthy ecosystems, society has made the decision to continue life as usual until a loss of valued goods and services is realized; then, society will expect and rely on science to clean up the mess and make it look natural.

Hilderbrand et al. 2005, 1

Rivers are part of society’s lifeblood. We live along these natural arteries of the landscape, and they provide fundamentally important services: ready access to potable water, an easy means of transportation, fertile and replenished lands readily irrigated for agricultural use, and a reliable source of renewable energy, among many other applications. In many parts of the world, cultural associations are tied intimately to these biophysical and economic values. Throughout history, many peoples have developed a strong emotive and psychological connection to river systems. Rivers are also extremely important in ecological terms. Researchers estimate that, although aquatic ecosystems occupy only 0.8 percent of the surface area of the planet, 12 percent of all animal species live in fresh water (Abramovitz 1996).

Despite these values and associations, ill-conceived, conflicting, and unsustainable practices litter the history of human exploitation of land and water resources. The damage inflicted upon natural ecosystems is no longer in dispute (Boon et al. 2000; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005), and there is severe pressure on the ecosystem services that we and future generations ultimately depend on (Daily 1997). Efforts to sustain biodiverse and functional river ecosystems represent one of the greatest environmental challenges for the twenty-first century (Bernhardt et al. 2006; Dudgeon et al. 2006).

The damage inflicted upon river systems, and prospects for river recovery, vary markedly across the globe. In environmental terms, there is no turning back the clock to former conditions and relationships—though we may be able to slow or reverse degradation trends. In most instances, reinventing the past simply isn’t practical, possible, or desirable. In engaging with prospects for river futures, we need to move beyond the rose-tinted impressions of the past that are framed in terms of idyllic rural lifestyles and notionally harmonious human-environmental relationships. Such unrealistic images convey a misleading sense of former practices, the impacts of which were diluted by lower population densities and the capacity of societies to abandon unsustainable practices at any given locality by simply moving elsewhere (and proceeding to do the same thing, until “collapse” ensued once more; e.g., Diamond 2005; Wright 2005).

Across much of the Western world, rivers that were physically transformed and ecologically ruined to facilitate industrial and agricultural developments are now receiving increasing societal demands for rehabilitation (e.g., Postel and Richter 2003; Wohl 2004; our preference for the term “rehabilitation,” rather than “restoration,” is discussed later in this chapter). Significant investment in large-scale rehabilitation initiatives has triggered notable recovery of many aquatic ecosystems, such as Chesapeake Bay and the Everglades in the United States and the Danube and Rhine rivers in Europe. Protection of high-value ecological remnants is now a key focus for many national and international agencies. Perhaps the greatest source of hope for healthier river futures, however, lies in the growth and success of small-scale rehabilitation initiatives that promote river recovery and reconnect local communities to their river systems. The process of river repair is underway.

Prospects for ecosystem recovery reflect societal values and the priority we place upon such issues. Among other factors, the amount that society is prepared to pay for such applications (i.e., what is socially acceptable), and societal attitudes toward maintenance and upkeep of rehabilitation measures, are major influences on these prospects. The quest for healthy and sustainable river futures reflects our capacity to develop harmonious relationships between human values and environmental needs (Wang 2006).

The emerging process of river repair extends across managerial, societal, and scientific dimensions. A paradigm shift is underway, as we realize the unsustainable consequences of past actions, and we adjust our perspectives to meet the reframed perspectives of this new era. In this book, we examine four key attributes of this emerging approach to river management:

1. The importance of a future focus for setting visions for river rehabilitation, and challenges faced in developing crossdisciplinary understanding with which to approach the process of river repair (part I).

2. The development of integrative, crossdisciplinary river science with which to facilitate the process of river repair (part II).

3. The primacy of regional and catchment-scale considerations as determinants of differing priorities and strategies that shape river futures in various parts of the world (part III).

4. The development of adaptive management frameworks that respect the inherent diversity, variability, and complexity of river systems (part IV).

In this chapter, we outline various components of the shift in thinking that underpins the emergence of the era of river repair. We then highlight the importance of coherent scientific information with which to guide this process. Finally, we define several key concepts used in this book, and provide an overview of the structure of the book as a whole.

The Emerging Process of River Repair

Access to, and use of, water resources has profoundly influenced the emergence of industrial society. In meeting societal needs, demands for guaranteed water supply for agricultural, domestic, navigational, and industrial applications were addressed with limited regard for ecosystem values (Hillman and Brierley 2005). The dominant mindsets were security of supply and minimization of risk. Notional progress through development in this era of “command and control” management brought about pervasive modification of environmental systems (Holling and Meffe 1996). Some of the key factors that affected rivers included the construction of dams and irrigation schemes, channelization and flood control programs, and a myriad of activities that sought to make drylands wetter and wetlands drier.

Although industrial society was not oblivious to the environmental consequences of its actions, it took some time to shift priorities away from the sole concern for economic considerations and toward an effort to address the health and well-being of society and natural ecosystems. However, initial attempts at repair emphasized issues that directly affected humans, such as water quality and disease (i.e., sanitation facilities). Eventually, this was viewed as an incomplete solution—one that ultimately fails to fix the problem.

The failure of management systems to deliver environmental goods, or to remedy environmental harm, renders the command and control approach vulnerable—if not obsolete—and open to replacement by new ways of thinking. Such transitions, if and when they occur, are the result of push and pull factors. “Push factors” refer to the apparent failure of traditional science to explain or predict controls on ecosystem functionality, and consequently a failure of management intervention. In part, this reflects the failure of reductionist, discipline-bound knowledge to adequately inform policy and management, thereby failing to reverse the pervasive degradation of aquatic ecosystems. Pull factors include demands from voters and influential community members for greater emphasis on environmental protection and a more substantive say in natural resource management.

In many parts of the world, a fundamental shift in river management practice is underway, marking a move away from a deterministic focus that endeavors to control nature and toward an ecosystem perspective that strives to work with nature, viewing humans as part of the ecosystem (table 1.1, figure 1.1). The emerging “ecosystem approach” to river management strives to establish healthy, productive, and resilient ecosystems that are able to recover from, rather than resist, disturbance. This new approach views ecosystem values and human needs side by side, placing biodiversity management and the sustainability agenda at the heart of the era of river repair.

Early developmental approaches to river management endeavored to meets society’s needs through the application of engineering skills to create stable, predictable, and reliable channels. These imperatives were met with considerable flair. However, a suite of unintentional, largely unconsidered consequences ensued, inflicting enormous damage to aquatic ecosystems. Attempts to redress the environmental shortcomings of former practices through discipline-bound engineering applications have often further exacerbated the problems. A wider, crossdisciplinary knowledge base is required to inform the process of river repair.

A shift in scientific practice and uptake has accompanied the reframed needs of the process of river repair. Two interrelated trends are particularly noteworthy: the move beyond discipline-bound thinking, and an increased emphasis upon the use of scientific insight to address practical, real-world issues. As noted by Ziman (2000), most practical problems do not emerge ready-made in the middle of existing research specialities—they are essentially crossdisciplinary. Ecosystems do not operate within the boundaries we place on understanding through discipline-based teaching and learning. Failure to integrate the complex interplay of linkages across discipline boundaries constrains our capacity to deliver effective guidance to environmental managers. Fragmented science and/or management can only yield partial solutions. Informing political/social debate and stakeholder negotiations requir...

Table of contents

• ABOUT ISLAND PRESS
• ABOUT THE SOCIETY FOR ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION INTERNATIONAL
• SOCIETY FOR ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION INTERNATIONAL
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• PREFACE
• PART I - The Emerging Process of River Repair
• PART II - An Integrative Scientific Perspective to Guide the Process of River Repair
• PART III - International Perspectives on the Process of River Repair
• PART IV - Managing the Process of River Repair
• About the Contributors
• INDEX
• Island Press Board of Directors