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New approaches to river management, edited by A.J.M. Smits, P.H. Nienhuis and R.S.E.W. Leuven. Backhuys, Leiden, 2000. ISBN 90‐5782‐058‐7.

New approaches to river management, edited by A.J.M. Smits, P.H. Nienhuis and R.S.E.W. Leuven.... NEW APPROACHES TO RIVER MANAGEMENT, edited by A.J.M. Smits, P.H. Nienhuis and R.S.E.W. Leuven. Backhuys, Leiden, 2000. 366pp. Price $100.00 ISBN 90-5782-058-7. This book has grown out of the 1998 Nijmegen conference sponsored by the interestingly titled Dutch ‘Foundation for Extraordinary Chairs of Nature Conservation’ and has an introductory chapter by HRH Prince Willen-Alexander of Orange. Sadly the Prince made me ‘see red’ by reiterating the myth that catchments have lost their ‘sponge effect’ as a result of land-use change; my view of the book quickly recovered when HRH was less mythological about the impacts of floodplain development, dams and structural engineering. For readers concerned about ‘sponge effects’ being labelled as a myth, the reviewer (a keen supporter of ecosystem views of river systems) has found the sponge to be a captivating but hydrologically meaningless analogy. The new approaches championed by the editors, if not the authors (edited volumes seem increasingly to resemble the problem of herding cats!), are those of co-opting stakeholders and of adaptive management. Having laid out these principles clearly in their introduction the rest of the volume wanders somewhat from the retrospective Rhine chapter by Havinga and Smits (making an interesting comparison between the 1882 channel and that in 1955), a similar Mississippi reflection by Galloway and the description of the Mekong by Quang which shows how nearly we are ‘doing it all again’ in the developing world. The reviewer freely admits that he plunders books like this for their vignette teaching aids; other academics might, therefore, like to know that there are plenty of delights here, such as the concepts derived from wetland management on the Danube: impact ‘magnification’ and ‘strategic communication’ (both physical and social!). The recent report from the World Commission on Dams is nicely anticipated by Goodland’s chapter on efficiency measures for ‘mega-projects’ because a previous answer to his question, ‘Is there a future for large dams?’ was ‘No!’. A softening of the World Bank’s approach, important considering its leadership role, is further emphasized by Matthews and Horner in describing the ‘World Hydrological Cycle Observing System’ } which both broadens the constituency of stakeholders (who needs a degree in hydrology?) and cements the worst word in modern technical English: ‘hydroinformatics’! It is at this stage that the concept of ‘fisquality’ (from Corporaal in the Netherlands) comes as no surprise! It is, however, forgiveable in that it centres stakeholder involvement around the hydro-ecological mainframe. Add to this Bouma and Seijis’ chapter on ecocentric cost–benefit analysis and I begin to re-write six lectures! The lure of new approaches becomes genuinely intoxicating to those brought up in darker days of river management (albeit with better terminology!) when Sparks and colleagues show how, in the case of the Illinois River a retrospective look at flow regime (including floodplain vegetation impacts) has informed the stakeholder constituency about ‘life after dams’. Smits and colleagues then inform us about the new approaches to managing the Rhine, including sourcearea controls. This reviewer was sincerely appreciative of the previous efforts of a companion volume (Newson, 2000) and the Editors’ finale of the ‘approaches’ book is no less impressive as they wrestle with the power of learning from history and the need to restore a key component of river basin stability } ‘resilience’ } so much better than ‘sponges’! REFERENCE Newson M. 2000. New Concepts for Sustainable Management of River Basins, Neinhuis PH, Leuven RSEW, Ragas AMJ (eds). Backhuys: Leiden, 374pp. (Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 10(1): 73.) Malcolm Newson University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK DOI: 10.1002/aqc.488 Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems Wiley

New approaches to river management, edited by A.J.M. Smits, P.H. Nienhuis and R.S.E.W. Leuven. Backhuys, Leiden, 2000. ISBN 90‐5782‐058‐7.

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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN
1052-7613
eISSN
1099-0755
DOI
10.1002/aqc.488
Publisher site
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Abstract

NEW APPROACHES TO RIVER MANAGEMENT, edited by A.J.M. Smits, P.H. Nienhuis and R.S.E.W. Leuven. Backhuys, Leiden, 2000. 366pp. Price $100.00 ISBN 90-5782-058-7. This book has grown out of the 1998 Nijmegen conference sponsored by the interestingly titled Dutch ‘Foundation for Extraordinary Chairs of Nature Conservation’ and has an introductory chapter by HRH Prince Willen-Alexander of Orange. Sadly the Prince made me ‘see red’ by reiterating the myth that catchments have lost their ‘sponge effect’ as a result of land-use change; my view of the book quickly recovered when HRH was less mythological about the impacts of floodplain development, dams and structural engineering. For readers concerned about ‘sponge effects’ being labelled as a myth, the reviewer (a keen supporter of ecosystem views of river systems) has found the sponge to be a captivating but hydrologically meaningless analogy. The new approaches championed by the editors, if not the authors (edited volumes seem increasingly to resemble the problem of herding cats!), are those of co-opting stakeholders and of adaptive management. Having laid out these principles clearly in their introduction the rest of the volume wanders somewhat from the retrospective Rhine chapter by Havinga and Smits (making an interesting comparison between the 1882 channel and that in 1955), a similar Mississippi reflection by Galloway and the description of the Mekong by Quang which shows how nearly we are ‘doing it all again’ in the developing world. The reviewer freely admits that he plunders books like this for their vignette teaching aids; other academics might, therefore, like to know that there are plenty of delights here, such as the concepts derived from wetland management on the Danube: impact ‘magnification’ and ‘strategic communication’ (both physical and social!). The recent report from the World Commission on Dams is nicely anticipated by Goodland’s chapter on efficiency measures for ‘mega-projects’ because a previous answer to his question, ‘Is there a future for large dams?’ was ‘No!’. A softening of the World Bank’s approach, important considering its leadership role, is further emphasized by Matthews and Horner in describing the ‘World Hydrological Cycle Observing System’ } which both broadens the constituency of stakeholders (who needs a degree in hydrology?) and cements the worst word in modern technical English: ‘hydroinformatics’! It is at this stage that the concept of ‘fisquality’ (from Corporaal in the Netherlands) comes as no surprise! It is, however, forgiveable in that it centres stakeholder involvement around the hydro-ecological mainframe. Add to this Bouma and Seijis’ chapter on ecocentric cost–benefit analysis and I begin to re-write six lectures! The lure of new approaches becomes genuinely intoxicating to those brought up in darker days of river management (albeit with better terminology!) when Sparks and colleagues show how, in the case of the Illinois River a retrospective look at flow regime (including floodplain vegetation impacts) has informed the stakeholder constituency about ‘life after dams’. Smits and colleagues then inform us about the new approaches to managing the Rhine, including sourcearea controls. This reviewer was sincerely appreciative of the previous efforts of a companion volume (Newson, 2000) and the Editors’ finale of the ‘approaches’ book is no less impressive as they wrestle with the power of learning from history and the need to restore a key component of river basin stability } ‘resilience’ } so much better than ‘sponges’! REFERENCE Newson M. 2000. New Concepts for Sustainable Management of River Basins, Neinhuis PH, Leuven RSEW, Ragas AMJ (eds). Backhuys: Leiden, 374pp. (Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 10(1): 73.) Malcolm Newson University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK DOI: 10.1002/aqc.488 Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal

Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems – Wiley

Published: Nov 1, 2001

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