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Rehabilitation of Riverbanks in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires: From Research to Action

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Making Green Cities

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Abstract

As a form of urban green, riverscapes are attractive places not only due to the presence of water, as one of the most important aesthetic elements of the landscape, but also due to the many native plants and animals occupying the shore. In Latin America, these landscapes have frequently been severely transformed and polluted, with severe changes in their ecosystem functions. Most stream channels are engineered, replacing natural features with concrete structures. Reduced infiltration can lower riparian groundwater levels and have dramatic effects on ecological processes. There are examples of the involvement of institutions and of civil society to reverse such negative impacts, with different degrees of success. This chapter, taking the Matanza-Riachuelo River (Buenos Aires province, Argentina) as an example, introduces an exemplary case of how applied research projects from the Academia could serve as inspirational drivers of different ecological rehabilitation actions.

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Correspondence to Ana Faggi .

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Faggi, A., Breuste, J. (2023). Rehabilitation of Riverbanks in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires: From Research to Action. In: Breuste, J., Artmann, M., Ioja, C., Qureshi, S. (eds) Making Green Cities. Cities and Nature. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73089-5_17

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