Abstract
In many countries of the Global South, aquatic ecosystems such as streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands are severely impacted by several simultaneous environmental stressors, associated with accelerated urban development, and extreme climate. However, this problem receives little attention. Applying a DPSIR approach (Drivers, Pressures, State, Impacts, Responses), we analyzed the environmental impacts and their effects on urban hydrosystems (including stagnant waters), and suggest possible solutions from a series of case studies worldwide. We find that rivers in the Global South, with their distinctive geographical and socio-political setting, display significant differences from the Urban Stream Syndrome described so far in temperate zones. We introduce the term of ‘Southern Urban Hydrosystem Syndrome’ for the biophysical problems as well as the social interactions, including the perception of water bodies by the urbanites, the interactions of actors (e.g., top-down, bottom-up), and the motivations that drive urban hydrosystem restoration projects of the Global South. Supported by a synthesis of case studies (with a focus on Brazilian restoration projects), this paper summarizes the state of the art, highlights the currently existing lacunae for research, and delivers examples of practical solutions that may inform UNESCO’s North–South–South dialogue to solve these urgent problems. Two elements appear to be specifically important for the success of restoration projects in the Global South, namely the broad acceptance and commitment of local populations beyond merely ‘ecological’ justifications, e.g., healthy living environments and ecosystems with cultural linkages (‘River Culture’). To make it possible implementable/practical solutions must be extended to (often poor) people having settled along river banks and wetlands.
Highlights
Urban Freshwater Hydrosystems of the Global South—A Socio-Ecological PandemoniumA person travelling through tropical and fast-developing countries (the so-called “Global South” (GS), according to the UN and UNESCO definitions) will very probably find a similar situation when looking at urban streams and wetlands
We explore the characteristics of urban rivers and streams in the Global South, and review examples of restoration efforts to date
This paper is based on discussions that took place during the session “River and the City” of the Integrative Sciences of Rivers Conference (IS Rivers), Lyon, France, June 2018, the session “River Culture” during the 2-nd Great Rivers Forum, Wuhan, China, October 2018, both attended by academic researchers and planners and managers, collectively with broad experience implementing restoration projects, and coming from very different disciplines such as ecology, sedimentology, social and physical geography, architecture, and urban planning
Summary
Urban Freshwater Hydrosystems of the Global South—A Socio-Ecological PandemoniumA person travelling through tropical and fast-developing countries (the so-called “Global South” (GS), according to the UN and UNESCO definitions) will very probably find a similar situation when looking at urban streams and wetlands. Many hydrosystems have been transformed into concrete canals and/or dammed to form reservoirs, the water quality of urban streams is uniformly bad, banks and riparian zones are used as dumping sites (relying on the flood to flush away waste products), and the people living near or passing by the waterbodies perceive them negatively because of the water appearance, foul smell and the suspicion that they harbor vectors of water-borne diseases This situation used to be prevalent throughout the Global North (GN), but with policy changes such as the Clean Water Act in the United States [1] and the Water Framework Directive in Europe [2], urban waters have recovered considerably in the past four decades. Many urban hydrosystems cannot be seen any more, because they have been buried and covered by asphalt to make space available for transportation infrastructure
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