Keeping Rivers Running in the Twenty-First Century

Newswise — Growing concern over global environmental change, water resources, and river restoration and management are focusing unprecedented attention on the human dimensions of the problem. Recognition of these anthropogenic impacts as well as the complexity and dynamics of fluvial system change over broad time scales is essential to sustainable river system management. This recognition, along with methods and strategies for managing rivers in the twenty-first century, is the primary theme of this new GSA Special Paper.

Rivers serve as the arteries of environmental systems, the lateral connections that convey pulses of water, sediment, and nutrients down through valley networks. In most watersheds, fluvial geomorphic processes and surface hydrology operate dynamically at various temporal and spatial scales, and intimately influence both flood and drought hazards. Management of surface-water resources has become increasingly urgent as concerns escalate over global environmental change, water scarcity, food production, resource sustainability, and biodiversity. The fourteen papers in this volume bridge classic late-twentieth-century fluvial geomorphology with modern concepts of river management and restoration. They apply perspectives of integrated watershed science, anthropogenic impacts, and historical changes to a modern fluvial geomorphology.

Individual copies of the volume may be purchased through the Geological Society of America online bookstore http://rock.geosociety.org/Bookstore/default.asp?oID=0&catID=9&pID=SPE451 or by contacting GSA Sales and Service, [email protected].

Management and Restoration of Fluvial Systems with Broad Historical Changes and Human ImpactsL. Allan James, Sara L. Rathburn, and G. Richard Whittecar (editors)Geological Society of America Special Paper 4512009, 229 pages, US$70.00, GSA member price US$49.00ISBN 978-0-8137-2451-5

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