Urban River Corridor Management

Whether you have a statutory responsibility for urban river corridors, or you are a local resident with concerns about how watercourses are managed in your town or city, this book can help.

There are significant challenges when balancing infrastructure, property development and flood risk with the essential ecosystem goods and services provided by urban watercourses. The behaviour and functions of rivers are highly counter-intuitive and span multiple specialist disciplines. Adjusting one element within a river corridor can have far reaching, unintended impacts on a range of other functions. As a result, it is important to use the best current knowledge and information to make management decisions.

Because healthy urban watercourses have the potential to provide massive societal and financial benefits, it is imperative to manage them to the best possible standards. Passive cooling protection from urban heat island effects, better public health due to air quality improvements, rainfall and floodwater management capacity, refugia for pollinating insects helping to promote food security and wellbeing benefits of urban green spaces are just a few of the essential services generated by urban river corridors.

Use this book from the Wild Trout Trust as a tool to help guide more effective decisions affecting urban river corridor management. It can form a reference for negotiations between different stakeholders - or equally can be used to inform proactive creation of sustainable policies. Combining specialist expertise across multiple disciplines will help create a better future for our urban spaces.