4
explicitly incorporate organisms. Engineers and physical scientists also increasingly acknowledge the importance of organisms in rivers, both as drivers of many
aspects of river management (e.g., Stewart et al. 2005; Haase et al. 2013) and as
ecosystem engineers that strongly influence river process and form (Corenblit et al.
2011; Merritt 2013; Riggsbee et al. 2013). Each disciplinary perspective adds an
important piece to a holistic understanding of rivers.
Recognizing these traditional differences in disciplinary perspectives is useful
when undertaking transdisciplinary river research or coordinated river management. No traditional disciplinary background effectively covers all aspects of river
ecosystems, but each discipline has important insights to offer. Analogously, people living along rivers or using the rivers for their livelihood or for recreation can
offer insights that are important to incorporate into river management, not least
because these people are the stakeholders who support or do not support river
management activities.
Fig. 1.1 Simplified representation of a river corridor as traditionally viewed from three different
disciplinary perspectives: here, the Benbryteforsen (bone-breaker) rapid on the Pite River in
Sweden
1 Introduction
explicitly incorporate organisms. Engineers and physical scientists also increasingly acknowledge the importance of organisms in rivers, both as drivers of many
aspects of river management (e.g., Stewart et al. 2005; Haase et al. 2013) and as
ecosystem engineers that strongly influence river process and form (Corenblit et al.
2011; Merritt 2013; Riggsbee et al. 2013). Each disciplinary perspective adds an
important piece to a holistic understanding of rivers.
Recognizing these traditional differences in disciplinary perspectives is useful
when undertaking transdisciplinary river research or coordinated river management. No traditional disciplinary background effectively covers all aspects of river
ecosystems, but each discipline has important insights to offer. Analogously, people living along rivers or using the rivers for their livelihood or for recreation can
offer insights that are important to incorporate into river management, not least
because these people are the stakeholders who support or do not support river
management activities.
Fig. 1.1 Simplified representation of a river corridor as traditionally viewed from three different
disciplinary perspectives: here, the Benbryteforsen (bone-breaker) rapid on the Pite River in
Sweden
1 Introduction