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Incorporating Hydromorphological Assessments in the Fluvial Geomorphology Domain for Transitioning Towards Restorative River Science—Context, Concepts and Criteria

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Fluvial Systems in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Almost every civilization has seen rivers from an utilitarian perspective, resulting in a series of irreversible hydromorphic changes that have disrupted all former balances between the human use of rivers and their natural flow dynamics. Rivers have been dammed, channelized and managed to meet societal developmental needs. However, with time the environmental costs of such river channel management was realised, which has led to the formulation of river restoration techniques, with the ultimate aim to bring rivers back to their pristine state. While traditional frameworks have always focussed on structural measures to restore rivers, they have invariably resulted in altering the natural stream functions, mostly by disrupting the channel longitudinal and lateral connectivity. Consequently, ecological restoration techniques with a greater emphasis on river health aspect, have been put forth that consider the interactions between river biota and the hydro-geochemical environment as the key parameter to promoting overall stream management. This concept of river health was slowly mainstreamed with the introduction of the term Hydromorphology by the European Union Water Framework Directive, which tried to combine the three elements of morphological functionality, hydrological regimes and river continuity to assess stream health. This paper provides a brief review of such ideas that are embedded into the concept of hydromorphology, focussing on the various methods and frameworks devised to assess stream health. Such methods have been conveniently classified into four categories depending on the major stream functions that are usually targeted to restore stream health. A few case studies where such frameworks have been successfully used to examine stream health are also discussed. As the human footprint becomes ever larger across the Anthropocene, it is contended that such holistic, hydromorphological assessment based restorative river science can provide the curricula needed for future river scientists and a collaborative platform for investigations by different disciplines.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been funded by a Department of Science & Technology and Biotechnology, Government of West Bengal Grant (256(Sanc)/ST/P/S & T/10G-13/2017 dated 25.03.2018) awarded to Priyank Pravin Patel. The UGC-SRF Award of Sayoni Mondal is also acknowledged.

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    Sayoni Mondal & Priyank Pravin Patel

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  1. Department of Geography, Aliah University, Kolkata, India

    Aznarul Islam

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  3. Department of Geography, Chandrapur College, Bardhaman, West Bengal, India

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Mondal, S., Patel, P.P. (2022). Incorporating Hydromorphological Assessments in the Fluvial Geomorphology Domain for Transitioning Towards Restorative River Science—Context, Concepts and Criteria. In: Islam, A., Das, P., Ghosh, S., Mukhopadhyay, A., Das Gupta, A., Kumar Singh, A. (eds) Fluvial Systems in the Anthropocene. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11181-5_4

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