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This book addresses the complex institutional dimensions to restoring floodplains. Despite the recent surge of interest in restoring floodplains among policy and research circles, as well as in the public domain, very few schemes for restoring functional floodplains have been put into practice in Europe to date. The book explores the reasons behind this discrepancy between interest and applications with an original, comparative analysis of the institutional drivers and constraints of floodplain restoration in Europe. It explains why so few projects have been successfully implemented, how recent policy shifts are creating new opportunities for floodplain restoration and what lessons for policy development and project management can be drawn from in-depth analysis of past and present schemes. At a time of rapidly growing interest in restoring floodplains as an important component of efforts to improve flood protection, enhance riparian habitats, strengthen catchment management, raise water quality and pursue integrated rural development, the book critically appraises the relationship between macro-level policy development and enforcement and micro-level project design and implementation. The book begins with two chapters setting out the case for floodplain restoration and assessing the relevant drivers and constraints of EU policy. The next three chapters analyse the policy contexts of floodplain restoration in France, Germany and Britain, addressing the principal drivers and constraints in the fields of water management, flood protection, nature conservation, spatial planning and agriculture. This is followed by six case studies of schemes to restore floodplains, divided between early schemes of the mid-1990s (Rheinvorland-Sud on the Upper Rhine, Bourret on the Garonne and the Long Eau project in England) and ongoing schemes of today (Lenzen on the Elbe, La Basse on the Seine and the Parrett Catchment Project). The book concludes by drawing lessons from the principal findings and providing recommendations for ways of developing policy and designing projects for restoring floodplains in the future.
This volume provides a comprehensive perspective on geomorphic approaches to management of lowland alluvial rivers in North America and Europe. Many lowland rivers have been heavily managed for flood control and navigation for decades or centuries, resulting in engineered channels and embanked floodplains with substantially altered sediment loads and geomorphic processes. Over the past decade, floodplain management of many lowland rivers has taken on new importance because of concerns about the potential for global environmental change to alter floodplain processes, necessitating revised management strategies that minimize flood risk while enhancing environmental attributes of floodplains influenced by local embankments and upstream dams. Recognition of the failure of old perspectives on river management and the need to enhance environmental sustainability has stimulated a new approach to river management. The manner that river restoration and integrated management are implemented, however, requires a case study approach that takes into account the impact of historic human impacts to the system, especially engineering. The river basins examined in this volume provide a representative coverage of the drainage of North America and Europe, taking into account a range of climatic and physiographic provinces. They include the 1) Sacramento (California, USA), 2) San Joaquin (California), 3) Missouri (Missouri, USA), 4) Red (Manitoba, Canada and Minnesota, USA), 5) Mississippi (Louisiana, USA), 6) Kissimmee (Florida, USA), 7) Ebro (Spain), 8) Rhone (France), 9) Rhine (Netherlands), 10) Danube (Romania), and 11) Volga (Russian Federation) Rivers. The case studies covered in these chapters span a range of fluvial modes of adjustment, including sediment, channel, hydrologic regime, floodplains, as well as ecosystem and environmental associations.
Despite our growing awareness of the vital role they play in the global environment, wetlands remain among the most endangered ecosystems on Earth and are still being destroyed and degraded at an alarming rate. This much-needed publication, which includes contributions from leading researchers and practitioners, presents a holistic perspective on the restoration of wetland ecosystems such as shallow lakes, streams, floodplains and bogs. Through the use of carefully chosen case studies, the authors examine European wetland restoration projects from Scandinavia to Bulgaria and from Ireland to Belarus, focusing on the lessons they can teach to a new generation of conservationists. As well as reviewing the sum of current knowledge on the subject, the text is a store of practical know-how, covering a wide range of conservation approaches and techniques. It analyzes the major problems in the field and identifies key principles for achieving sustainability in wetland restoration. The topics covered include: • the role of wetlands in landscape functioning • human interference with natural processes such as water and matter cycles and energy dissipation • the impact of land use on global problems such as climate change, floods and droughts • the role played by diversity in wetland functioning The work shows that without sustainable land use over the totality of their catchment areas, and without cohesive inter-agency cooperation, individual restoration projects will have a short life span. The balance between scientific background and practical restoration makes this book a valuable resource for scientists as well as wetland managers, decision makers and land use planners, as well as students of ecology, nature conservation and environmental protection.
While restoration ecology has traditionally aimed to re-create some putative more ‘natural’ ecological state, forest landscape restoration (FLR) has emerged over the last decade as an approach aimed more at restoring natural functions, while focusing on meeting human needs. With a view to exploring the practical potential of this approach, this book draws together a team of experts from the natural and social sciences to discuss its success so far in addressing critical issues such as biodiversity, ecological function, and human livelihoods. Applying principles of landscape ecology, restoration ecology, planning theory and conflict management, the book presents a series of case studies which document the approach, and discusses how the approach can help with priority setting for the future. The book will provide a valuable reference to graduate students and researchers interested in ecological restoration, forest ecology and management, as well as to professionals in environmental restoration, natural resource management, conservation, and environmental policy.
This open access book addresses the various disciplinary aspects of nature-based solutions in flood risk management on private land. In recent decades, water management has been moving towards nature-based solutions. These are assumed to be much more multi-purpose than traditional “grey infrastructures” and seem to be regarded as a panacea for many environmental issues. At the same time, such measures require more – and mostly privately owned – land and more diverse stakeholder involvement than traditional (grey) engineering approaches. They also present challenges related to different disciplines. Nature-based solutions for flood risk management not only require technical expertise, but also call for interdisciplinary insights from land-use planning, economics, property rights, sociology, landscape planning, ecology, hydrology, agriculture and other disciplines to address the challenges of implementing them. Ultimately, nature-based flood risk management is a multi-disciplinary endeavor. Featuring numerous case studies of nature-based flood risk management accompanied by commentaries, this book presents brief academic reflections from two different disciplinary perspectives that critically highlight which specific aspects are of significance, and as such, underscore the multi-disciplinary nature of the challenges faced.
River restoration projects are designed to recreate functional characteristics within a context of physical stability. They tend to focus on the development and application of geomorphic principles for river restoration design. Due to different models obtaining different results on the same problem, incomplete or absent data, and climatic/social/cultural changes, the designers and managers of such projects frequently face high levels of uncertainty. This book will provide a systematic overview of the issues involved in minimizing and coping with uncertainty in river restoration projects. A series of thematic sections will be used to define the various sources of uncertainty in restoration projects and how these show at different points in the life cycle (design, construction and post-construction phases) of restoration projects. The structure of the book will offer a rational theoretical analysis of the problem while providing practical guidance in managing the different sources of uncertainty. A wide range of case studies will be included from Europe, North America and Australasia
This book examines recent developments in river (flood) management from the viewpoint of Making Space for the River and the resulting challenges for water governance. Different examples from Europe and the United States of America are discussed that aim to ‘green’ rivers, including increasing river discharge for flood management, enhancing natural and landscape values, promoting local or regional economic development, and urban regeneration. Making Space for the River presents not only opportunities and synergies but also risks as it crosses established institutional boundaries and touches on multiple stakeholder interests, which can easily clash. Making Space for the River helps the reader to understand the policy and governance dynamics that lead to these tensions and pays attention to a variety of attempts to organize effective and legitimate governance approaches. The book helps to realize connections between policy domains, problem frames, and goals of different actors at different levels that contribute to decisive and legitimate action. Making Space for the River has an international comparative character that sheds light upon both the country-specific governance dilemmas which relate to specific state traditions and institutional characteristics of national water management, but also uncovers interesting similarities which provide us with building blocks to formulate more generic lessons about the governance of Making Space for the River in different institutional and social contexts. The authors of this book come from a variety of disciplines including public administration, town and country planning, geography and anthropology, and these different disciplines bring multiple ways of knowing and understanding of Making Space for the River programs. The book combines interdisciplinary scientific analyses of Space for the River projects and programs with practical knowing and lessons-drawing. Making Space for the River is written for both practitioners and scholars and students of environmental policy, spatial planning, land use and water management. Editors: Jeroen Warner, Assistant Professor of Disaster Studies, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Arwin van Buuren, Associate Professor of Public Administration, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Jurian Edelenbos, Professor of Public Administration, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
This edited volume was originally published in 2000 and presents a comprehensive, interdisciplinary review of issues related to inland flood hazards. It addresses physical controls on flooding, flood processes and effects, and responses to flooding, from the perspective of human, aquatic, and riparian communities. Individual chapter authors are recognized experts in their fields who draw on examples and case studies of inland flood hazards from around the world. This volume is unusual among treatments of flood hazards in that it addresses how the non-occurrence of floods, in association with flow regulation and other human manipulation of river systems, may create hazards for aquatic and riparian communities. This book will be a valuable resource for everyone associated with inland flood hazards: professionals in government and industry, and researchers and graduate students in civil engineering, geography, geology, hydrology, hydraulics, and ecology.
Based on the bestselling book, Rivers of North America, this new guide stands as the only primary source of complete and comparative baseline data on the biological and hydrological characteristics of more than 180 of the highest profile rivers in Europe. With numerous full-color photographs and maps, Rivers of Europe includes conservation information on current patterns of river use and the extent to which human society has exploited and impacted them. Rivers of Europe provides the information ecologists and conservation managers need to better assess their management and meet the EU legislative good governance targets. - Coverage on more than 180 European rivers - Summarizes biological, ecological and biodiversity characteristics - Provides conservation managers with information to resolve conflicts between recreational use of rivers, their use as a water supply, and the need to conserve natural habitats - Data on river hydrology (maximum , minimum and average flow rates), seasonal variation in water flow - Numerous full-color photographs - Information on the underlying geology and its affect on river behaviour
Aimed at Masters, and PhD students, teachers, researchers andnatural resource managers, this book explores the interface betweenrestoration ecology and ecological restoration. Covers both the ecological concepts involved in restorationecology and their practical applications. Written by an excellent group of ecologists from centres acrossEurope with a strong reputation for restoration ecology. Only textbook around aimed specifically at advancedundergraduate courses and postgraduate study programmes.