Urban Riverscape Research Articles

Evaluation of extinction risk for stream fishes within an urban riverscape using population viability analysis

Abstract1. The Santa Ana River in the Los Angeles region of California demonstrates common habitat degradation symptoms that are characteristic of the urban stream syndrome. These impacts have altered the Santa Ana River community structure, with few species as impacted as the native Santa Ana sucker (sucker; Pantosteus santaanae). 2. Consequently, a recovery plan developed for sucker identified the need for a population viability analysis (PVA) to assess sucker extirpation risk. However, PVAs can be data‐intensive and are subject to several sources of bias when standardized protocols are absent. 3. More than 20 years of sucker and arroyo chub (chub; Gila orcuttii) surveys using different methods were compiled to build an integrated hierarchical multi‐population PVA to estimate trends in abundance and extirpation probability of these native fishes from the Santa Ana River. 4. PVA modelling indicated similar patterns in sucker and chub abundance along the Santa Ana River, with the highest abundance of both species in the upper regions of the river during the early 2000s and downstream in recent years (2018–2022). Extirpation risk was estimated to be greatest near wastewater treatment facilities, where native fish abundance estimates have been zero since 2018. Extirpation risk was lower downstream of the wastewater treatment facilities for both species, although extinction risk was higher for sucker than chub throughout the river. 5. As the model evolves and more data are collected, the PVA could be used to assess the effects of various management actions, such as non‐native predator removals and native fish re‐introductions, on sucker and chub persistence.

Spatiotemporal evolution of urban landscapes in Chinese historic water towns (1918–2021)

This study explores the spatiotemporal evolution of urban landscapes in 19 Chinese historic water towns in the northern Zhejiang plain. Utilising historical maps and remote sensing images, we derived 2-D morphological patterns from town ground plans in 1918, 1969, 2000, and 2021 to represent urban landscape fractions (buildings, lands, and waters). Morphology-based landscape metrics reveal three distinct periods of urban landscape dynamics over the past century: stabilisation (1918–1969), accelerated growth (1969–2000), and high-speed growth (2000–2021). Our findings present a diminishing role of rivers in shaping land fragments and urban riverscapes, behind which is the weakening conventional water-human relationship during water towns’ modern urbanisation. The results offer insights into shifting water town landscape patterns and regional landscape heterogeneity, prompting further considerations of hydrology-oriented urban design and planning to conserve historic urban landscapes.

Recreational use of the urban riverscape: What brings people to the river?

Abstract Visiting urban green and blue spaces improves the quality of life in cities as it helps to preserve human-nature bonds. In this context, the role of urban parks and forests has been well-recognised; however, much less is known about the landscapes of inland water bodies. To fill this gap, the study aimed to identify spatiotemporal patterns of recreational activities in the urban riverscape in relation to the visitors’ residential proximity. Also, survey results were combined with spatial and remote sensing data to determine how the spatial characteristics of the riverscape affect its recreational use. The case of Warsaw, Poland, was used. The results indicated that the riverscape serves as a local park for the neighbouring communities, while it is rather a warm-weekend attraction for far-living ones. Visitors concentrate in the city centre, and spread out along the communication paths; however, spatial patterns of the magnitude of particular activities also show interbank differences. Spatial error models of drivers of riverscape recreation revealed (1) the multifaceted role of trees in densely visited areas and (2) the importance of physical availability for contact with the urban river. These findings expand knowledge on the recreational use of urban rivers by exploring its place-related motivations.

Mapping cultural ecosystem services of the urban riverscapes: the case of the Vistula River in Warsaw, Poland

Urban green and blue spaces play a key role in strengthening human-nature bonds as they offer a variety of opportunities to directly contact nature. They are robust providers of cultural ecosystem services (CES), non-material benefits arising from the interaction between people and nature. Recreation in green and blue spaces beneficially contributes to the well-being of urban dwellers in multiple ways, and the character of these contributions depends both on spaces’ features and visitors’ characteristics. The flow of CES related to the recreational use of urban parks and forests have been widely studied; however, much less attention has been paid to urban riverscapes. This study aimed to fill this gap by assessing benefits associated with the recreational use of urban rivers, and determining drivers that affect these experiences. Using the case of Vistula River in Warsaw, Poland, a citywide PPGIS survey was conducted to map several types of recreation-related benefits. Binomial logistic regression models were built to explain positive contributions to well-being as a function of attributes of visitors, spatiotemporal preferences of visits, and preferred activities. Survey participants highly assessed urban riverscape benefits, with the general tendency of highest scores to be clustered in the city core. Benefits vary in terms of drivers they are affected, with three main insights: (1) intellectual and emotional attachment to the riverscape is built through the long-term process of repetitive visits; (2) the devotion to nature is based on direct experiences, and strongly associated with sports; (3) on-water recreation underpins both emotional attachment to the river and social interactions. The results bring spatially explicit information on people’s attitudes towards the urban river, and underscore the complexity of links between people and the riverscape. The knowledge on spatiotemporal patterns and drivers affecting riverscape-related benefits may support the sustainable planning and management of nature-based recreation in cities.

Integrated Urban Riverscape Planning: Spatial Prioritization for Environmental Equity

Integrated Urban Riverscape Planning: Spatial Prioritization for Environmental Equity

Managing urban riverscapes: An assessment framework to integrate social-ecological values and physical processes

The services that rivers provide and how they affect the landscape plays a dominate role in urban planning and development. Urban riverscapes, which consist of stream channels, their floodplains, biotic communities, and manmade features, are complex social-ecological and hydrogeomorphic systems. Yet, despite recognition of their place and value, rivers are often degraded in urban settings. Successfully managing urban riverscapes requires improved methods to assess them and to more effectively link stressors to values, and to incorporate these considerations in planning. Assessment of urban riverscapes’ physical condition and function—a hydrogeomorphic assessment—is necessary to make these links, and inform more appropriate management strategies for sustainable and valued riverscape systems. The framework and methods used for such an assessment should be appropriate to the urban context, insofar as they are applicable to a range of streams from lightly degraded to highly utilized or constructed. Above all, the framework must prioritize the connection of human communities to riverscapes. In this article, we outline a framework for urban riverscape assessment which considers four facets of urban riverscapes: human values, hydrology, geomorphology, and ecology. The four facets, assessed across multiple nested scales, provide a flexible basis for context-driven hydrogeomorphic assessment, which is vital to informing better planning and management of urban riverscapes. The framework can be integrated with other facets (e.g. geochemical, aquatic ecology) depending on the scope of the assessment. By linking intrinsic, relational, and use-based values to physical conditions, watershed managers can select relevant and measurable indicators that directly inform interventions in the riverscape, catchment, or urban zones to improve riverscape function and urban vitality through planning mechanisms. This assessment framework facilitates dialogue between managers, practitioners, scientists, and the community; enabling technical and non-technical inputs to the development of assessment criteria, and a shared vision to inform targets and goals.

Managing Urban Riverscapes: An Assessment Framework to Integrate Social-Ecological Values and Physical Processes

Managing Urban Riverscapes: An Assessment Framework to Integrate Social-Ecological Values and Physical Processes

Human–River Encounter Sites: Looking for Harmony between Humans and Nature in Cities

Human welfare depends on the health of nature. Decades of ill-conceived management practices caused a decline in the quality of human life, as well as in biological and cultural diversity. Simultaneously, they increased social and ecological risks. For instance, mismanagement of urban rivers jeopardizes their ecological health and ability to provide ecosystem services. While demands for responsible urban riverscape design that fulfill both human and ecosystem needs are increasing, explicit recommendations to achieve these ambitious goals are still lacking. We present a first attempt of a conceptualization of Human–River Encounter Sites for urban rivers that targets reconciliation between humans and nature within urban river corridors. It builds upon the River Culture Concept with literature reviews and experiences from river restoration projects. We identify six tenets that are important to develop guidelines for Human–River Encounter Sites: health, safety, functionality, accessibility, collaboration, and awareness. This paper presents how these tenets can collectively help to harmonize the needs of citizens and biota, and to mitigate the current urban river crisis. This contribution feeds the debate on sustainable socio-ecological management of urban rivers and provides guidelines for the implementation of future urban river restorations and management efforts.

Recognition and Classification of Homogeneous Landscape With Visitor–Employed Photography and Cloud Image Annotation API—An Example of the Riverscape in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan

Effective classification of landscape photographs is a vital step in data processing and environment analysis. With the popularity of crowdsourcing geo-information, an increasing number of studies have used geotagged photographs to visualize how people perceive and interact with destinations and explore the aesthetic, cultural, and recreational value of the areas. In recent years, machine-learning algorithms for image recognition have dramatically improved the efficiency of the assignment of keywords and provide possibilities for the automatic classification of numerous photographs. However, the applicability of such methods for the practical landscape classification is still not clear, especially for the photographs presenting a homogeneous landscape that has similar characteristics. This study developed a semi-automatic classifier for homogeneous landscape photographs by using Google Cloud Vision API and multi-level hierarchical clustering. The classifier was applied to the classification of urban riverscape photographs, which is a typical example of homogeneous landscapes in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan. The riverscapes can be classified into 9 characteristic groups by the classifier and the visual impression of these groups matches well with our intuitive feeling. A confusion matrix showed that the overall accuracy was 82.61%, indicating a strong agreement between the classifier and manual classification. Therefore, the classifier is practical for classifying homogeneous riverscape photographs. Such methodology also provides the possibility of public participation in the assessing process, which, in turn, contributes to urban tourism management.

Eco-contagious: bringing urban riverscape into sustainable urban landscape

Nowadays, many cities develop their facilities, technologies, architectural, or even “starscape”. Rarely had urban area consider their ecological perspective into design practice mainly in tropical developing countries. In developing countries, river condition today has been deteriorating; thus, it will impact to the ecological continuity fragmentation. Bogor itself has the oldest Botanical Garden in Indonesia. It has richness in biodiversity, both plantations and animals. Nevertheless, there is a Ciliwung River break through the middle of the area, along the way to the Capital City of Indonesia, Jakarta. This study aims to find a new model of urban riverscape principles in a setting of urban area. The analysis had been done in this study, including river sinuosity calculation, corridor connectivity calculation using geographic information system (GIS) through list cost path analysis, and also finalized with designing the public and private open space as strategies to bloom the ecological aspect across the region.

Designating Urban Rivers as National Heritage: A case study of Sungai Kelang and Sungai Gombak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Rivers were places where civilizations arose and aided the foundations of their economic fortunes. However, most urban rivers have today been abused and undervalued, and thus little conserved or re-opened up to celebrate these waterways. Malaysia is one of a number of countries whom have witnessed the former. In 2011, the River of Life (RoL) Entry Points Projects (EPP) was introduced to address this issue aimed towards revitalizing the Klang River into a heritage riverscape and a reinvigorated linear commercial centre for Greater Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley (GKL/KV). This paper discusses the heritage fabric at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak Rivers in portraying and narrating the importance of these rivers to the cultural identity of this precinct. Recognising these qualities will result in highlighting the cultural heritage values that need to be considered in recognizing this riverscape as a National Heritage asset. This paper also explored the historical and potential elements of the urban river in Malaysia through the mix method approach (Convergent Parallel). Research data was obtained from Malaysian authorities, using a top-down approach, through interview and visitor participant questionnaires to obtain convergence and divergence perceptions and patterns between these two sources of data. Data obtained sought to elucidate the cultural identity of this urban riverscape and its fabric from the perspective of both official participants perceived responsibilities and the interpretation of the riverscape from local respondent perspectives. The results of data from both participant types is crucial in offering new viewpoints towards a new to better adapt the government’s visions and visitor expectation about the future of this riverscape. This information could better enhance the tourism aspects of this area that has been highlighted as ‘National Key Economic Area (NKEA) 06: Tourism’, and to foster the integration of cultural heritage in an urban setting.

Historical Enquiry as a Critical Method in Urban Riverscape Revisions: The Case of Belgrade’s Confluence

This article aims to underline the necessity of including historical enquiry in reaching the complex goals of sustainable development of urban riverscapes. Its proposed method is a survey conducted through selection, interpretation and systematization of the relevant historical data that consider the Belgrade cityscape, and specifically, the New Belgrade public spaces at the river confluence. The theoretical framework, which relies on the concepts of ‘landscape urbanism’ and ‘critical practice of landscape architecture’, has affected the selection and interpretation of dense historical layers of modernization, formed in diverse socio-economic and political conditions. We have distinguished five historical strata that contribute significantly to comprehension of the present state. By looking at the traces of the formative period of Belgrade urban landscape, the moments of New Belgrade’s inception, inerasable impacts of war, vigorous post WWII socialist transformation and, finally, the series of Danube riverscape revisions, we intend to depict the complexity of the modern city legacy and thus stress the interconnectedness of past and future endeavours. As a counterpoint to globalizing tendencies in re-designing city riverfronts, this work is conceived as a lateral contribution to a broader investigation that informs, supports and constitutes more ecologically viable practices.

Loss of dendritic connectivity in southern California's urban riverscape facilitates decline of an endemic freshwater fish.

Life history adaptations and spatial configuration of metapopulation networks allow certain species to persist in extreme fluctuating environments, yet long-term stability within these systems relies on the maintenance of linkage habitat. Degradation of such linkages in urban riverscapes can disrupt this dynamic in aquatic species, leading to increased extinction debt in local populations experiencing environment-related demographic flux. We used microsatellites and mtDNA to examine the effects of collapsed network structure in the endemic Santa Ana sucker Catostomus santaanae of southern California, a threatened species affected by natural flood-drought cycles, "boom-and-bust" demography, hybridization and presumed artificial transplantation. Our results show a predominance of drift-mediated processes in shaping population structure and that reverse mechanisms for counterbalancing the genetic effects of these phenomena have dissipated with the collapse of dendritic connectivity. We use approximate Bayesian models to support two cases of artificial transplantation and provide evidence that one of the invaded systems better represents the historic processes that maintained genetic variation within watersheds than any remaining drainages where C.santaanae is considered native. We further show that a stable dry gap in the northern range is preventing genetic dilution of pure C.santaanae persisting upstream of a hybrid assemblage involving a non-native sucker and that local accumulation of genetic variation in the same drainage is influenced by position within the network. This work has important implications for declining species that have historically relied on dendritic metapopulation networks to maintain source-sink dynamics in phasic environments, but no longer possess this capacity in urban-converted landscapes.

Innerstädtische Flusslandschaften als integriertes Handlungsfeld – Planungspraktische Einflussfaktoren der Koordination und Kooperation

In urban riverscapes different significant land uses and interests come together, for instance flood protection, environmental protection, tourism or local recreation, nature or monument conservation, waterfront development or climate change mitigation. Accordingly, planning for integrated spatial developments is required for which actors of different administrative units need to collaborate. This paper first shows the institutional requirements for a collaborative approach in riverscapes. Therefore the administrative organization and the legally based objectives and planning instruments are analyzed. Based on planning culture as analytical perspective, further informal and more cultural influence factors of cooperation are included. Following the examples of integrated development planning in the riverscapes of Nuremberg and Ratisbon, some interesting characteristics of two key organizations—water management authorities and city administrations—were pointed out by highlighting their guiding principles, their organization-specific perceptions, and validations as well as their particular self-conception. It becomes apparent, that the so called common process paradigm—how the cooperation in urban riverscapes is implemented—plays a crucial role in the way planning processes take place. Last but not least it influences the spatial development and design itself. Relevant parameters for designing and steering integrated planning processes are identified.

The Association Between Riverscape and Place Attachment in Historical Cities in Malaysia

The landscape architecture covers aesthetic aspects, as well as, individual’s activities, and their sense of attachment to urban elements. The river as a natural landscape can play a significant role in urban rehabilitation and residents’ well-being and welfare. The rapid urban development and urban regeneration has inadvertently resulted in a limited attachment to urban ecosystem and landscape designs that make to loos urban river identity and river place meaning. In addition, the riverscape design was not sufficiently studied in historical city rehabilitation. In addition, urban riverscape design focuses on physical aspects while understanding the meaning, social value, social bonding, and psychological sense to riverscape as a place in historical city development still remains a challenging proposition to be undertaken. Hence, this study is motivated to address the need to investigate the association between riverscape and place attachment in historical citied. The study conducted a comprehensive literature review on place attachment dimensions identified by previous research. The study determined twenty three dimensions within three clusters, physical/environmental, personal, and psychological. The dimensions are, pro-environmental behavior, connectedness to the nature, emotional association, person dimension, psychological dimension, place meaning, place identity, recreation experience, destination loyalty, leisure involvement, willingness, sense of place, place satisfaction, length of residence, scale of place, emotional connection, moral factors, place continuous, social bonding, social well-being, and civic and natural dimensions. In conclusion, these dimensions need to be considered in riverscape design and development in heritage cities, such as Malacca in Malaysia, to enhance quality of life and livability, simultaneously. As a future study, formulating the association between riverscape design and place attachment is proposed.

Managing urban riverscapes: towards a cultural perspective of land and water governance

Urban riverscapes are facing diverse demands concerning riparian uses, ecological, economic and social functionalities, and aesthetic questions. One of the main challenges today is the implementation of an integrative perspective on riverscapes to overcome the horizontal frontiers of traditional water management (water governance) and urban planning (land governance). Led by the theoretical framework of planning culture, the article shows the different rationalities and governance approaches from a cultural perspective. Finally, two quite different local planning cultures are outlined to illustrate the cultural variety with which the challenges of sustainable urban riverscapes are managed.

P05.56. Prescribing nature: a content analysis of qualitative responses among park users by socio-demographics and patterns of use

Methods In situ questionnaires were delivered face-to-face to 1108 users (54% response rate) of urban riverscapes in Sheffield, UK. First mentioned responses to an openended question about how they felt after leaving the area were content analysed. Resultant codes were grouped into themes and domains and quantified. Using Chi-square tests, response-patterns were compared across age, gender, visit frequency, number of people in the group, or whether walking a dog.

Perspectives on the potential for reconciliation ecology in urban riverscapes.

Abstract Urban riverscapes represent some of the most heavily engineered and degraded freshwater ecosystems in the world, and offer limited opportunities for restoration or rehabilitation because of continued anthropogenic use. The future of maintaining biodiversity and ecological quality in anthropogenic ecosystems may rest with the incorporation of novel techniques for habitat creation and improvement into the management of such systems, to reconcile the ecological requirements of the ecosystem with anthropogenic resource use. This emerging field is termed 'reconciliation ecology' and its principles may be particularly relevant to urban riverscapes. This review firstly draws a distinction between river restoration and rehabilitation on the one hand and reconciliation ecology on the other, before reviewing key factors relating to possible habitat creation and improvement methods for heavily engineered urban riverscapes, within the context of reconciliation ecology. Examples are mainly drawn from the UK, but can have international applications. Although such methods are relatively unexplored at the present time, this represents a useful research area that may engender collaborations between restoration researchers and practitioners in urban regions.

Farewell to the Bagmati Civilisation: Losing Riverscape and Nation in Kathmandu

The Kathmandu reaches of the Bagmati River are widely characterised as severely degraded. This article explores the rhetorical life and death of the concept of a ‘Bagmati civilisation’: a particular configuration of history, cultural identity and river ecology espoused by a prominent Nepali river restorationist. Following the 2001 imposition of a state of emergency in Nepal, the architect of the Bagmati civilisation idea declared that the civilisation, and by extension the river's ecological health, may never be restored. This rhetorical gesture illuminates connections between the ‘life’ of an urban riverscape and the cultural idea of the state and the nation.

Pleasure, Politics, and the “Public Interest”: Melbourne's Riverscape Revitalization

As global forces have reshaped urban landscapes over the past 2 decades, cities have typically responded with a range of “spectacular” developments, the most common of which have been waterfront projects. In this article we describe the transformation of Melbourne's urban riverscape from an industrial junkyard into a postindustrial “landscape of desire.” A primary concern is identifying winners and losers in this restructuring. To this end, we resurrect and redefine the concept of the public interest. In Melbourne, the production of signature projects geared to global place marketing coincided with a collapse of democratic public planning. Urban development became design driven, more seductive, and more secretive. Urban planning practice was restructured along with the urban landscape.