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...