What’s wrong with healthy rivers? Promise and practice in the search for a guiding ideal for freshwater management

Blue, Brendon

doi:10.1177/0309133318783148

Cited by 50 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 120 publications

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“…CPG has been productive in elaborating how politics and our environmental understanding interfere. For instance, Blue (2018) has pointed out how the normative concept of river health has initially been rejected as being unscientific, how it has gained scientific legitimacy by being made "" via quantitative indices and how it became central to river management. Sayre (2015) points out that experimentally fencing out predators indeed protected sheep in a US rangeland.…”

Section: Cpg and Its Epistemology 1 Cpg Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

More accurate less meaningful? A critical physical geographer’s reflection on interpreting remote sensing land-use analyses

Braun

2021

Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment

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Land-use and land-cover analyses based on satellite image classification are used in most, if not all, sub-disciplines of physical geography. Data availability and increasingly simple image classification techniques – nowadays, even implemented in simple geographic information systems – increase the use of such analyses. To assess the quality of such land-use analyses, accuracy metrics are applied. The results are considered to have sufficient quality, exceeding thresholds published in the literature. A typical practice in many studies is to confuse accuracy in remote sensing with quality, as required by physical geography. However, notions such as quality are subject to normative considerations and performative practices, which differ between scientific domains. Recent calls for critical physical geography have stressed that scientific results cannot be understood separately from the values and practices underlying them. This article critically discusses the specific understanding of quality in remote sensing, outlining norms and practices shaping it and their relation to physical geography. It points out that, as a seeming paradox, results considered more accurate in remote sensing terms can be less informative – or meaningful – in geographical terms. Finally, a roadmap of how to apply remote sensing land-use analyses more constructively in physical geography is proposed.

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Section: Cpg and Its Epistemology 1 Cpg Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

More accurate less meaningful? A critical physical geographer’s reflection on interpreting remote sensing land-use analyses

Braun

2021

Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment

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“…The effectiveness of management programs cannot be meaningfully measured unless appropriate indicators assess whether river condition is improving or deteriorating (Boulton, 1999;Bunn et al, 2010;Fryirs, 2015;Norris & Thoms, 1999). Assessment of river condition is inherently qualitative and subjective, as particular value systems determine which attributes/processes are considered to be important and the reference conditions against which they are measured (Blue, 2018;Blue & Brierley, 2016;Bunn et al, 2010). Historical considerations shape these contextual, place-based deliberations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the geo‐eco‐hydrological condition of anabranching reaches in the Source Zone of the Yellow River, western China

Han

Brierley

2021

River Research & Apps

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A geo-eco-hydrological approach is developed and applied to assess river condition for three anabranching reaches in the Source Zone of the Yellow River. Building on principles of the River Styles Framework, attributes used to assess river condition are tailored to measure key attributes of the character and behavior for the type of river under consideration. Hydrogeomorphic process linkages with riparian vegetation function are appraised using the Fluvial Biogeomorphic Succession Model for each reach. Reference conditions incorporate measures of river geo-eco-hydrological structural integrity and functional connectivity, relating the expected "best achievable" conditions to prevailing land use practices in these grazing adapted grassland ecosystems. Contemporary conditions closely approximate expected reference conditions in hydro-geomorphic terms. While vegetation interactions function effectively in the active channel zone, they are subject to land use pressures in many floodplain areas. Minimizing impacts of direct anthropogenic disturbance, while promoting passive management practices that support self-sustaining processes, are considered to offer the best prospect to maintain good river condition in these reaches. Major commitment to environmental protection in this area makes this a realistic possibility.The generic approach to analysis of geo-eco-hydrological condition is readily transferable to other situations.

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“…The health metaphor is commonly used by environmental scientists to call policymakers to action [17,18]. For instance, this can be seen in SDG 14 of the United Nations, as Franke et al [15] state.…”

Section: The Moral Role Of Metaphorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Healthy Metaphor? The North Sea Consultation and the Power of Words

Geukes¹,

Pesch

Correljé

et al. 2021

Sustainability

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The North Sea Consultation was set up to resolve conflicting claims for space in the North Sea. In 2020, this consultation process resulted in the North Sea Agreement, which was supported by the Dutch Parliament and cabinet as a long-term policy; however, the fishing sector felt excluded, left the consultation process, and does not support the agreement. Using semi-constructed interviews and the method of wide reflective equilibrium, this research found that in this conflict the metaphor of ‘health’ has played a decisive role. While all stakeholders want to keep the sea ‘healthy’, they disagree on what a healthy sea actually means, leading to contrastive positions on the desirability of trawler fishing, wind parks, and conservation areas—the North Sea Agreement’s main foci of interest. To prevent the unproductive escalation of such a conflict, it is inevitable to acknowledge the moral connotations of such metaphors, as this allows a decision-making process that can be considered more just.

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What’s wrong with healthy rivers? Promise and practice in the search for a guiding ideal for freshwater management

Cited by 50 publications

References 120 publications

More accurate less meaningful? A critical physical geographer’s reflection on interpreting remote sensing land-use analyses

More accurate less meaningful? A critical physical geographer’s reflection on interpreting remote sensing land-use analyses

Assessment of the geo‐eco‐hydrological condition of anabranching reaches in the Source Zone of the Yellow River, western China

A Healthy Metaphor? The North Sea Consultation and the Power of Words

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