Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The natural river and its destruction
- 3 The natural riverscape and its modification
- 4 Resources I. Water resources and their loss
- 5 Development and variation of rivers
- 6 Development and variation of riverscapes
- 7 Building blocks of river vegetation
- 8 Building blocks of flood plain vegetation
- 9 Resources II. Plants and animals, cleaning and minerals
- 10 Building blocks of the riverscape
- 11 Patterns, boundaries and fragmentation
- 12 Resources III. Settlements and constructions
- 13 The harsh riverscape
- 14 The tempered or smiling riverscape
- 15 Envoi
- Bibliography
- Index to plant and animal vernacular and taxonomic names
- General subject index
1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The natural river and its destruction
- 3 The natural riverscape and its modification
- 4 Resources I. Water resources and their loss
- 5 Development and variation of rivers
- 6 Development and variation of riverscapes
- 7 Building blocks of river vegetation
- 8 Building blocks of flood plain vegetation
- 9 Resources II. Plants and animals, cleaning and minerals
- 10 Building blocks of the riverscape
- 11 Patterns, boundaries and fragmentation
- 12 Resources III. Settlements and constructions
- 13 The harsh riverscape
- 14 The tempered or smiling riverscape
- 15 Envoi
- Bibliography
- Index to plant and animal vernacular and taxonomic names
- General subject index
Summary
We belong to a time as well as a landscape
(Storey, 1993)We seek order out of chaos.
The more we discern, the less we seem to know.
(Bell, 1997)Rivers … were made for wise men to contemplate, and for fools to pass by without consideration.
(cited in Walton, 1653)Introduction
The riverscape and the river share the sheet of water which covers the land: in whole or part, permanently or intermittently. The river is a stream of water flowing along a bed in the earth, to the sea (lake or river). The riverscape is that part of landscape which has (or had) a watercourse as its focus. Rain falls upon the riverscape. Some evaporates, some sinks below, gradually emerging as springs or flushes, and (usually) most runs down the slope, gradually collecting into the rivers and finally the seas. The hydrological cycle is finished by the evaporation of sea (and fresh) water into the air, and its precipitation back on the earth's surface.
Seeing that life on earth is based on water, and life on land, on fresh water, the river is essential to land life, as well as river life. The riverscape and, to a considerable extent all that grows on it or is put on it, depends on the river, since the river (or the ice-river of a precursor glacier) first formed the riverscape. The two are interdependent, both are modified by human impact (even in Antarctica, e.g. air and sea pollution, and climate change), and both are natural capital, hence natural resources for people.
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- Information
- The Riverscape and the River , pp. 1 - 15Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008