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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the paradigmatic changes needed to revive sustainable river catchments. It considers how water infrastructures throughout river catchment areas can be decomposed and remade to create flourishing ecological corridors that benefit all of their human and non-human inhabitants.

Paper long abstract:

With settlements in many parts of the world located alongside them, rivers have a long history of infrastructural control. In the UK, water mills harnessing their power were followed by efforts to redirect water into irrigation and industrial activities. Catchment areas were cleared of forests and wetlands and drained to extend farming and urban areas. Rivers’ stone and gravel deposits were quarried not only to build towns and cities, but also to canalise their flows and construct flood defences. Pollution from these activities flowed back into waterways and contiguous marine areas. Drinking water was abstracted from rivers’ vulnerable (but cleaner) upper reaches, while dams and reservoirs impeded their flows to assure water supplies for an ever-growing human population.

All of these processes redirected water into supporting human needs and interests, prioritising these at the expense of the non-human species sharing river catchments and equally dependent upon reliable water flows and good water quality. It is now clear, with alarming levels of species extinctions, failing ecosystems and an obvious environmental crisis, that such inequality is not sustainable.

Focused on the unbuilding of water infrastructures, this paper explores the paradigmatic changes in thinking and in practice that are needed to revive sustainable river catchments. It considers how, with more imaginative visions of human-non-human partnerships, water infrastructures throughout river catchment areas can be decomposed and remade to create flourishing ecological corridors that benefit all of their human and non-human inhabitants.