Floods are major disturbance events for riverine ecosystems, directly and indirectly impacting organisms and their habitat. In this study I investigated the role of riverine floods and flow alteration in regulating aquatic macroinvertebrate population and community structure. I examined this problem using a variety of methods: a meta-analytic review of primary studies from the literature, a mathematical model synthesizing population and flood ecology, a multi-year experimental flood program in an arid-land river, and a field investigation of flood recovery behaviors in a charismatic larval odonate. I found that floods significantly reduced invertebrate abundance in the short term, but had varied effects across particular study sites, microhabitats, and taxonomic groups. I determined that both resistant and resilient capabilities are important to persistence of invertebrate populations after disturbance events, and that these traits may act in a binary fashion. Recovery over time of invertebrate populations may be partially due to "hidden resistance" of spatially displaced individuals in side-channels, benthic substrate, and vegetation or wood. Some invertebrates adapted to flood-prone rivers may possess behavioral adaptations for returning to the main-channel of the river after flood events. This dissertation contributes to riverine disturbance ecology and provides information useful to prediction and management of ecosystem flows in rivers. / Graduation date: 2012

Riparian ecosystems of the southwestern United States are highly valuable to both the ecological and human communities which surround them. Over the past century, they have been subject to shifting management practices to maximize human use, control, ecosystem service, and conservation. This creates a complex relationship between water policy, management, and the natural ecosystem necessitating research on spatial and temporal dynamics of riparian vegetation. The San Acacia Reach of the Middle Rio Grande, a 60 mile stretch from the San Acacia Diversion Dam to San Marcial, has experienced multiple management and river flow fluctuations over the past 80 years, resulting in threats to riparian and aquatic ecosystems. This research was completed through the use and analysis of multi-source remote sensing data, GIS, and a review of the on-the-ground management decisions to better understand how the location and composition of the riparian vegetation has been affected by these shifting practices. This research focused on four phases, each highlighting different management practices and river flow patterns during the last 80-years. Each of these periods provides a unique opportunity to observe a direct relationship between river management and riparian land cover response and change. Overall, management practices reduced surface river flows and limited overbank flooding and resulted in changes in the composition, density, and spatial patterns of the vegetation, including increased non-native vegetation growth. Restoration efforts over the past few decades have begun to reduce the presence of non-native species. Despite these changes, this ecosystem was shown to be extremely resilient in maintaining its function/service throughout the entire study time frame.

Riparian ecosystems are valuable to the ecological and human communities that depend on them. Over the past century, they have been subject to shifting management practices to maximize human use and ecosystem services, creating a complex relationship between water policy, management, and the natural ecosystem. This has necessitated research on the spatial and temporal dynamics of riparian vegetation change. The San Acacia Reach of the Middle Rio Grande has experienced multiple management and river flow fluctuations, resulting in threats to its riparian and aquatic ecosystems. This research uses remote sensing data, GIS, a review of management decisions, and an assessment of climate to both quantify how riparian vegetation has been altered over time and provide interpretations of the relationships between riparian change and shifting climate and management objectives. This research focused on four management phases from 1935 to 2014, each highlighting different management practices and climate-driven river patterns, providing unique opportunities to observe a direct relationship between river management, climate, and riparian response. Overall, we believe that management practices coupled with reduced surface river-flows with limited overbank flooding influenced the compositional and spatial patterns of vegetation, including possibly increasing non-native vegetation coverage. However, recent restoration efforts have begun to reduce non-native vegetation coverage.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第23488号 / 工博第4900号 / 新制||工||1766(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市社会工学専攻 / (主査)教授 角 哲也, 准教授 竹門 康弘, 准教授 Kantoush Sameh / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

Ever since the laborious consultation process to set the National Greenhouse Response Strategy (1991-1992), stakeholder 'consultation' has been something Australian governments do. Or attempt to do. A recent trend in NSW in particular has been to expand the concept and practice of consultation to multi-party, collaborative decision-making, also referred to as participatory democracy. One such initiative officially begun in August 1997 is the River Management Committee (RMC) exercise. For this tremendous outlay of financial and human resources, the government is taking a punt that the committee will deliver better decisions, and more timely actions, on river flows and water quality in each of the major regulated river valleys in the state. The set up and first year of operation of the RMC exercise is the subject of this thesis. Specifically it examines the design of the process and its appropriateness to the task at hand; the reality of consensus decision-making amongst people with opposing views; the democratic ideal of participants learning to be 'other directed' in terms of putting aside their own positions to work for the common good; and affordability of such exercises from both the government and non-government participants' points of view. The themes emerging from this thesis have become the focus for further research. / Master of Science (Hons)

The research programme was relevant to urban planning and in particular to the design of stormwater management schemes that are more environmentally and socially acceptable. It examined social and perception issues relating to stormwater management techniques within residential areas, and in particular to the application of SUDS, mainly ponds, and river management schemes. The thesis arose from a project funded by the Environment Agency of England and Wales through SNIFFER under a programme titled “Social impacts o f stormwater management techniques including river management and SUDS”, SNIFFER Code: SUDS01. The public perception of construction is becoming a matter of increasing importance both in the UK and internationally since socio-economic parameters and public consultation both have to be taken into consideration in the planning and implementation of relevant projects. This research programme endeavoured to match the relevant legislative goals with society’s actual needs. The main aims of the research programme were to obtain an in-depth understanding and knowledge of the perceptions of popular stormwater management practices (SUDS and river management), and to evaluate these techniques from a social perspective. To satisfy these aims the following objectives were set: • To assess public awareness and perceptions of SUDS (particularly retention ponds) in the UK; • To assess professional perceptions of SUDS in the UK; • To assess perceptions of different stormwater management techniques, in three European cities; • To compare perceptions of different stormwater management techniques, SUDS and river management practices; • To link the research findings with trends in perceptions of nature and water. To meet the programme’s aims and to satisfy the objectives, the perceptions of SUDS in the UK (principally ponds) were investigated over a wide range of locations. In addition, the different river management approaches used in three heavily urbanised European cities, Glasgow, London, and Athens were investigated. The results of this research programme provide a means to understand perceptions of stormwater management and to appreciate what types of schemes will be more readily accepted by the public. The research has shown that members of the public hold strong views as to what they like or dislike about SUDS and water management installations in their local area, in spite of the fact that there were demonstrably low levels of public awareness of SUDS. The amenity, recreational value and aesthetics of new schemes seem to be of major importance for public acceptability, while function, efficiency, and maintenance are primarily important in areas facing flooding problems. Other key findings include the fact that there is a general preference for sustainable urban water management and for river restoration schemes compared with more conventional, ‘hard engineering’ approaches, such as culverting of rivers. This preference was expressed both by members of the public and by professionals involved in their planning and implementation. Another important result was that although unfamiliarity can produce negativity, education can influence attitudes positively even in sensitive issues such as safety, and can be used by authorities and planners as a means of enhancing the acceptability of new schemes. Consequently, the results of the surveys can be used as arguments towards the application of informative campaigns which should be taken into account prior to scheme implementation. This information can be utilised not only for stormwater management design, but also for other environmentally friendly constructions which the public may have a low level of awareness. Recommendations are made with respect to public and professional attitudes for improving the public acceptability of new and modified stormwater management systems. Recommendations and barriers to the uptake outlined in this thesis mainly refer to the appearance of schemes rather than technical issues. They are therefore of most use as guidance for improving aesthetics and increasing public acceptability. The outcomes of this research will be of use to policy makers, water companies, local authorities, environment agencies, planners, developers, consultants active in urban development, and researchers in applying wider-accepted practices for the assessment of public perception. Some findings from this research have been presented at several stakeholders’ meetings, at 4 conferences, and are published in the form of papers and reports, including the DTI SR 622 report titled “An Assessment of the Social Impacts of Sustainable Drainage Systems in the UK”, and the Environment Agency & SNIFFER report, SUDS01, 2005, titled “Social Impacts of stormwater management techniques including river management and SUDS”. This publication also constitutes Environment Agency R&D Technical report P2-258.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第23591号 / 地環博第218号 / 新制||地環||42(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 宇佐美 誠, 教授 諸富 徹, 准教授 吉野 章 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM

La Durance est une large rivière méditerranéenne à charge grossière et à lit divagant. Le fonctionnement hydro-sédimentaire de son bassin versant a été profondément modifié par la mise en place d'aménagements hydro-électriques et par les extractions de graviers, qui ont entraîné une rétraction de sa bande active et une incision marquée de son lit. Ces évolutions morphologiques correspondent à des enjeux majeurs en termes de gestion du territoire en moyenne et basse Durance, du fait de la nécessité du maintien d'une capacité d'écoulement du lit en crue, et de la mobilité latérale du lit, souvent incompatible avec l'occupation de la vallée. Cette thèse, basée sur la collecte de données de terrain, vise à développer un schéma de fonctionnement du transport sédimentaire dans les rivières à charge grossière de grande largeur, en intégrant les différentes échelles spatiales (et donc temporelles). Elle a également pour objectif de donner des clefs de compréhension pour la gestion des flux sédimentaires en Durance. Les mécanismes de la mobilité des particules sédimentaires et des formes fluviales sont étudiés dans une démarche ascendante de reformulation scientifique de questionnements opérationnels. / The Durance River (South-Eastern France) is a large and steep wandering gravel-bed river, deeply impacted by gravel mining and flow diversion in its whole catchment area. The Durance River is characterized by a sediment deficit that led to a reduction of active channel width and river bed degradation. These lateral and vertical dynamics lead to important issues in terms of landscape management, because of (i) maintaining the bed hydraulic capacity to evacuate flood discharges and (ii) planform evolution of the river that conflicts with landscape use. This field-based thesis aims at developing a functioning scheme of bedload transport in large gravel bed rivers at various spatial (and consequently temporal) scales and gives keys to understanding for sediment fluxes management on the Durance River. Particle and bedform mobility mechanisms are studied with a scientific approach closely linked to management issues.

Through out this study ‘relational scenarios’ were seen as the possible outcomes of the expression of human-river relationships in a catchment. Working within Inglis’s (2008, pg. 10) comment that ‘the Human World Relationship is expressed through a person’s views and behaviour towards the natural world, which can be either constructive or destructive’, two relational scenarios were selected to represent these two predicted outcomes of human-environment (or in the case of this thesis human-river) relationships: IWRM, seen as constructive and mutually beneficial to both the social and ecological system, and the Tragedy of the Commons, seen as destructive and parasitic in nature. In respect to this assertion, a conceptual framework or model was developed and used to guide the inductive process of this research. Through a social survey (administered via semi-structured interviews) of stakeholders (water-users) in the Kat River Catchment, Eastern Cape, South Africa, social attitudes towards the Kat River were explored. These attitudes were considered as variables that relate to the expression of ‘Human World Relationships’ namely ‘values and behaviour’ (Inglis, 2008, pg. 10). The findings of this thesis confirm that attitudes are influential components of human-river relationships in the Kat River Catchment. It was observed from the findings that the attitudes individuals have towards the Kat River have the potential to influence the ways people interact with the River and its associated resources, and are in turn influenced by the condition of the River and connections people have or make with the River within their daily lives. Such relationships in turn affect the management of the River and its water resources and influence how individuals approach water-related issues and undertake the associated activities. Given this understanding it was then proposed that attitudes could provide information that enables the prediction of likely ‘relational scenarios’ (IWRM or the Tragedy of the Commons) in a catchment. The findings appear to support this proposal, and three main attitude groups (utilitarian, associative and dissociative) were identified and used to further the discussion into how this knowledge could be used in predicting possible relational scenarios based on human-river relationships. Further exploration of the identified attitude groups suggested that these variables are significantly influenced by environmental ethics and place attachment (present in the community) and a series of guiding frameworks were developed to facilitate the exploration of the attitude groups relative to these concepts. The frameworks were generated from the hypothesis that knowledge of attitude groups in a catchment, in connection with the relative degrees to which moral values and worldviews are expressed, could provide insight into the readiness of a catchment system for the implementation of IWRM and/or the facilitative steps needed to shift the influence of unfavourable attitude groups (i.e. dissociative attitudes). Such steps would most likely involve extensive educational, awareness and capacity building programs. Finally, given the above theoretical frameworks, inductively developed from the findings of the social survey and related literature, the conceptual model was reevaluated and extended to include the thesis findings and hypotheses. It is suggested that in a catchment where there is a balance between the expression of utilitarian and associative attitude groups, then there is a high probability of finding present evidence of mutually beneficial human-river relationships already in play, as well as ‘fertile soil’ for the promotion of IWRM and philosophies and skills that generate such relationships. Alternatively in an area with a strong expression of dissociative attitudes, it is more likely to find evidence of destructive, more parasitic-like relationships being expressed, and a lack of commitment and interest in being involved in changing the status quo. It is likely that where both associative and dissociative attitudes are present there will be an overlap of elements of both scenarios – a situation that is probable in most catchments – depending on the strength of expression of either attitude group the balance will shift (be shifting) between the two relational scenarios.

Botswana is a water scarce country. Rainfall is highly variable, leading to limited surface and groundwater resources. Due to persistently dry conditions most rivers found in Botswana are ephemeral. The Boteti River sub-Basin is one of the numerous ephemeral river sub-Basins, in Botswana. Key environmental challenges, resulting from human activities, in the sub-Basin are: increased pressure on local resources due to overstocking, overgrazing and over-harvesting; reductions in wildlife numbers; denudation of vegetation and the resultant exposure of the soil to wind erosion. As a major step, to pilot implementation of river basin management in the ephemeral river basins in southern Africa, the Boteti River sub-Basin is one of the key areas identified for study under the Ephemeral River Basins in the Southern African Development Community SADC (ERBSADC) Project. This study was initiated, as part of the ERB-SADC project and its aim is to investigate the socio-economic status of the Boteti River sub-Basin and determine the potential for developing integrated management of water and land resources in the sub- Basin. Its key objectives are to identify and assess types and patterns of water use; to identify and assess key livelihood activities; and to critically assess community participation in water resources management in the sub-Basin. A questionnaire was administered to 293 households, a focus group discussion was held with twelve community representatives of six villages in the sub-Basin, six traditional leaders and five local government officers were interviewed as key informants, and informal discussions were held with three local farmers. Results from the study indicate low livelihood levels based on livestock and arable agriculture, high dependence on natural resources and low participation of communities in water management. The study concludes that a livelihood approach to integrated water resources management can help deal with environmental challenges and enhance community participation. / Environmental Sciences / Thesis (M.A. (Environmental Science))