Reading the landscape

Abstract

Assertions of a ‘naughty world’ (Kennedy, 1979) point to the importance of place-based knowledge in informing landscape interpretations and management applications. Building upon conceptual and theoretical insights into the geomorphic character, behaviour and evolution of rivers, this paper outlines an approach to the practice of fluvial geomorphology: ‘reading the landscape’. This scaffolded framework of field-based interpretations explicitly recognizes the contingent nature of biophysical interactions within any given landscape. A bottom-up, constructivist approach is applied to identify landforms, assess their morphodynamics, and interpret the interaction and evolution of these features at reach and catchment scales. Reading the landscape is framed as an open-ended and generic set of questions that inform process-form interpretations of river landscapes. Rather than relying unduly on conceptual or theoretical representations of landscapes that suggest how the world ‘should’ ideally look and behave, appropriately contextualized, place-based understandings can be used to detect where local differences matter, thereby addressing concerns for the transferability of insights between locations and the representativeness of sample or reference sites. The approach provides a basis for scientifically informed management efforts that respect and work with the inherent diversity and dynamics of any given river system.

The use of remote sensing to characterise hydromorphological properties of European rivers

“…The framework is coherent with earlier work on hierarchical functioning of river systems (e.g. Frissell et al 1986;Brierley et al 2013) but it focuses on how hydromorphological processes cascade down the spatial scales to impact the form and behaviour of channels. Temporal change is expressly considered in RHF in order to quantity process rates, detect changes in indicators over time, identify pressures and link pressures to hydromorphological adjustment (Grabowski et al 2014).…”

“…Expert interpretations, field surveys and historical analysis will remain important ways of reading the landscape (Brierley et al 2013), but RS data will support and corroborate conclusions drawn from these sources. Soon, lines will blur further as the evergrowing temporal record of RS data will allow historical analysis to be conducted based on semi-automated procedures and virtually continuous data.…”

On the control of riverbed incision induced by run‐of‐river power plant

“…River geomorphology has become a key aspect of river management over the last years [Brierley et al, 2013]. However, the economical appraisal of direct and indirect ecosystem services affected by fluvial geomorphology is difficult to estimate [Newson and Large, 2006].…”

A ‘behaviorscape’ perspective on stream fish ecology and conservation: linking fish behavior to riverscapes

“…Recent advances in river classification based on land use history and fluvial geomorphology use a combination of remotely sensed information and ground-based 'reading' of the landscape, and may help researchers select sites in which to measure any number of variables of interest including fish occurrence or abundance. 63,64 However, while this and similar approaches increase our understanding of heterogeneity in the physical landscape, fish and other biota are still typically sampled for presence or abundance in a few disparate sites and averaged across categories of a river classification, 65 leaving the researcher to infer the distributions of biota across broad areas. When spatially continuous surveys of fish are coupled with detailed knowledge of the landscape, their distribution is not inferred but known.…”

“…A landscape perspective means more than studying large spatial extents and averaging across similar land units; rather, spatially continuous sampling may be required to uncover the variation in patterns at intermediate scales relevant to managers 3,66 in addition to the influence on basin geometry, network pattern, and flow directionality of freshwater systems. Classification schemes that group rivers according to geomorphic behavior, potential for change, and other characteristics 64,148,149 can and should be incorporated, but care should be taken not to lose sight of local but important exceptions to average conditions across a classification unit.…”