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Freedom Space for Rivers: A Sustainable Management Approach to Enhance River Resilience

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Abstract

River systems are increasingly under stress and pressure from agriculture and urbanization in riparian zones, resulting in frequent engineering interventions such as bank stabilization or flood protection. This study provides guidelines for a more sustainable approach to river management based on hydrogeomorphology concepts applied to three contrasted rivers in Quebec (Canada). Mobility and flooding spaces are determined for the three rivers, and three levels of “freedom space” are subsequently defined based on the combination of the two spaces. The first level of freedom space includes very frequently flooded and highly mobile zones over the next 50 years, as well as riparian wetlands. It provides the minimum space for both fluvial and ecological functionality of the river system. On average for the three studied sites, this minimum space was approximately 1.7 times the channel width, but this minimum space corresponds to a highly variable width which must be determined from a thorough hydrogeomorphic assessment and cannot be predicted using a representative average. The second level includes space for floods of larger magnitude and provides for meanders to migrate freely over a longer time period. The last level of freedom space represents exceptional flood zones. We propose the freedom space concept to be implemented in current river management legislation because it promotes a sustainable way to manage river systems, and it increases their resilience to climate and land use changes in comparison with traditional river management approaches which are based on frequent and spatially restricted interventions.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the climate change consortium Ouranos as part of the “Fonds vert” for the implementation of the Quebec Government Action Plan 2006–2012 on climate change. We thank the Ministère de la Sécurité Publique du Québec for giving us access to their LiDAR data in the Matane watershed. The help and support of Simon Lajeunesse (MRC Brome-Missisquoi) and Nathalie Martel (Ministère du Développement Durable, de l’Environnement, de la Faune et des Parcs du Québec) was much appreciated. Thanks also to the field assistants involved in this project: Diogo Barnetche, Johan Bérubé, Maxime Boivin, Larissa Holman, Ariane Lelièvre, Lecia Mancini, Jean-Philippe Marchand, William Massey, Antonin Montané, Véronic Parent, Fernanda Paulo de Oliveira, Pierre Simard, Cyril Usnik and Svenja Voss. We thank the three anonymous reviewers for their detailed and constructive comments on a previous version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada

    Pascale M. Biron & Guénolé Choné

  2. Département de biologie, chimie et géographie, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, QC, G5L 3A1, Canada

    Thomas Buffin-Bélanger, Claude-André Cloutier, Sylvio Demers & Taylor Olsen

  3. Département des sciences de la Terre et de l’atmosphère, Université du Québec à Montréal, Case postale 8888, succursale Centre-ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3P8, Canada

    Marie Larocque & Marie-Audray Ouellet

  4. Ouranos, 550, Sherbrooke Ouest, Tour Ouest, 19e étage, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B9, Canada

    Claude Desjarlais

  5. Aecom, 85, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, QC, H2X 3P4, Canada

    Joanna Eyquem

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  1. Pascale M. Biron
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  2. Thomas Buffin-Bélanger
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Correspondence to Pascale M. Biron.

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Biron, P.M., Buffin-Bélanger, T., Larocque, M. et al. Freedom Space for Rivers: A Sustainable Management Approach to Enhance River Resilience. Environmental Management 54, 1056–1073 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-014-0366-z

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