Abstract
ABSTRACT In the last decade, an awareness towards temporary rivers has increased globally in response to drying climates and growing human demand for water. However, social perceptions of temporary rivers have rarely been incorporated in their science and management. In this study, we advance an understanding of the socio-cultural values of temporary rivers principally in a European context. We used an ecosystem services-based approach for a participatory and deliberative exercise with 16 researchers and managers. Our results point out to two important aspects of socio-cultural values in temporary rivers. First, cultural ecosystem services have high socio-cultural values and usually represent the interests of the less influential stakeholders in related conflicts. And second, the temporal and geographical variability of these types of rivers is key to understand their socio-cultural values. As an example, the low provision of freshwater in a long non-flowing phase is one of the reasons for its high value. The results above point to future research needs that deserve more attention like the study of tradeoffs and synergies of ecosystem services and interdisciplinary research and management. We finally acknowledge the need to conduct case study research to account for geographical variation and to include the multiple views of different stakeholder groups.
Highlights
Temporary rivers represent between 34% and 69% of the world’s inland waters below 60o latitude, and are gaining widespread attention (Acuña et al 2014)
We have aimed to expand the knowledge about socio-cultural values of ecosystem services in temporary rivers
A few works on the ecosystem services of temporary rivers have recently emerged (Koundouri et al 2017; Datry et al 2018; Stubbington et al 2018b, 2020; Jorda-Capdevila et al 2020), our results pointed to different research gaps where socio-cultural valuation and sociocultural values themselves can contribute to
Summary
Temporary rivers represent between 34% and 69% of the world’s inland waters below 60o latitude, and are gaining widespread attention (Acuña et al 2014). Referred to as intermittent rivers, are defined as watercourses that cease to maintain sur face flow at some points in space and time along their course (Acuña et al 2014). They are shaped by alternat ing wet and dry periods (i.e. flowing and non-flowing phases) over annual and inter-annual cycles, so tem porary rivers are one of the most dynamic freshwater ecosystems hydrologically (Arthington et al 2014). The alternation of flowing and non-flowing phases can promote higher biodiversity, than their per manently flowing counter-parts, and supports a range of ecosystem processes providing valuable ecosystem services that are key for maintaining the health and well-being of local communities (Acuña et al 2014; Koundouri et al 2017; Datry et al 2018; Stubbington et al 2020)
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