Disentangling the complexity of socio-cultural values of temporary rivers

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.

Best Practices for Monitoring and Assessing the Ecological Response to River Restoration

“…Traditional approaches to economic valuation struggle to cope with the intangible benefits of many cultural ecosystem services and so need to be supported by appraisals including social and ecological perspectives. The restoration of river flows [145][146][147], for example, can return the social fabric of indigenous communities to their traditional river-focused ways of life [148]. Some people argue that such benefits are 'priceless' and assigning monetary values is unethical.…”

Adapting participatory processes in temporary rivers management

“…For example, participants had a better understanding of temporary rivers in areas where these ecosystems were naturally ephemeral (or episodic) and they used to hike along their riverbeds. Thus, including the use of the cultural ecosystem services concept during the diagnosis stage of our process was key to increase public awareness on these ecosystems, especially in areas where they were undervalued (Jorda-Capdevila et al, 2020). Further, the use of the ecosystem services concept has increased since the second cycle of the RBMPs, but less evidence is available on their use in the development and updating of these RBMPs (Grizzetti et al, 2016).…”

Setting an ecological flow regime in a Mediterranean basin with limited data availability: The Locone River case study (S-E Italy)

“…The loss or degradation of habitats is the main threat to biodiversity, and related ecosystem services (Arthington et al, 2006;Poff et al, 2007). In the Mediterranean Region the predominant rivers, which constitute an important water resource for human activities and have a high socio-cultural value, are non-perennials (Jorda-Capdevila et al, 2021;Skoulikidis et al, 2017). Most of the basins under the Mediterranean climate are currently subject to water scarcity and water pollution (Malagò et al, 2019;Rocha et al, 2020;Tramblay et al, 2021).…”