The land–river interface: a conceptual framework of environmental process interactions to support sustainable development

Abstract

Rivers and their surrounding lands are focal points of human development in the landscape. However, activities associated with development can greatly affect river processes, causing significant and often unintended environmental and human impacts. Despite the profound and varied environmental impacts that development-related alterations cause through hydrological, geomorphic, and ecological processes, they are not widely acknowledged outside of river management and affect resource availability and hazard exposure to people. In this paper, we propose a novel, interdisciplinary conceptual framework of river–land process interactions to support sustainable management and development. We introduce the term ‘land–river interface’ (LRI) to describe areas of the landscape in which river processes affect land, vegetation, and/or fauna, including humans, directly or indirectly. The multiple links between LRI processes and factors at the river basin, valley, and river channel (i.e. reach) scale are synthesized and a conceptual zonation of the LRI based on the process is proposed to serve as a framework to understand the impacts of human activity. Three examples of development-related activities (urbanization, dams and aggregate mining) illustrate how alteration to the form and functioning of river basins, valleys, and channels cause a range of impacts to be propagated throughout the landscape, often spatially or temporally distant from the activity. The diversity and severity of these impacts on the environment and people underscore the need to incorporate river processes, as represented in the LRI concept, into broader environmental management to better anticipate and mitigate negative impacts and maximize positive outcomes to deliver the benefits of sustainable development across society.

Place-based interpretation of the sustainable development goals for the land-river interface

“…It is a term based on concepts from hydrology, geomorphology and ecology, and encompasses a wide area of the landscape (river channels, floodplains, etc.). It is defined by strong two-way process interactions, spatial connections, and varying temporal responses (Grabowski et al 2022). In general, the LRI is characterised by four components: (i) the hydraulic active zone (i.e.…”

“…The processes operating in the four zones of the LRI support ecosystems and human communities. The hydraulic active zone is characterized by flowing water and sediment transport (Grabowski et al 2022). It is a critically important zone for ecological habitats and provides important natural resources (e.g.…”

“…flood protection), they are not included in the definition of the LRI, because their form and dynamics are often strongly influenced by different coastal processes. (Grabowski et al 2022) While links between the SDGs and the LRI appear straightforward (e.g. food production links to SDG2, aquatic ecosystem services to SDG6, etc.…”

“…As a result, many of the world's major cities and new developments are located near rivers. Hence, rivers and the surrounding land, termed the land-river interface (LRI), is an essential zone for sustainable development (Grabowski et al 2022). The LRI must be considered, as a whole, when proposing and evaluating measures to achieve sustainable development goals and targets.…”

“…These arguments are especially important in the context of the LRI. While the LRI undoubtedly plays an important role in supporting multiple SDGs (Daam et al 2019;Funk et al 2019), it is challenging to capture the interacting hydrological, geomorphic, and ecological processes that underpin many SDGs in the LRI into a set of concrete and practical indicators (Grabowski et al 2022). To identify LRI-specific sustainable development priorities, an approach is required that explicitly considers these processes and interactions while also maintaining a practical level of methodological complexity.…”