Ecology, Planning, and River Management in the United States

Some Historical Reflections

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4239181
AutoresMartin Reu, Martin Reuss (United States Army Corps of Engineers, autor de correspondencia)
Año2005
Volumen10
Número1
Páginasart34
Fecha de publicación2005-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaConservation Ecology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1195-5449 • E-ISSN: 1708-3087
EditorialResilience Alliance (PUBLISHER • CA)
DOI10.5751/es-01334-100134
OpenAlexW1793250300
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas8

River ecologists are also river-basin planners. However, their role in planning has developed slowly over the decades since the beginning of the 20th century. Three major factors explain this phenomenon. First, ecologists focused on plant and animal communities rather than on broader policy issues related to land settlement and water development. Second, the federal government, and most state and local governments as well, used mainly economic criteria to justify projects. Intangible benefits, including the value of species or an aesthetically pleasing landscape, drew relatively little attention. Third, the public generally favored development, especially during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Only after World War II did the public's position shift in favor of more preservation, as ecologists developed the concept of the ecosystem, large dam projects forced basin inhabitants from their homes, and chemical and nuclear pollutants threatened the environment. Also, urbanization increased support for the preservation of recreation sites and of streams undisturbed by human intervention. Meanwhile, partly through important advances in geomorphology and hydrology, ecologists acquired new tools to understand the land-water relationship within river basins. Neverthless, benefit-cost analysis continued to dominate federal waterresources planning, and organizational culture and competing or overlapping bureaucracies hampered rational water resources administration. Environmental groups and physical, natural, and even social scientists began to promote alternative ways to develop rivers. Today, the ideas of integrated water resources management, sustainable development, and comprehensive river-basin management dominate much of the thinking about the future course of river planning in the United States. Any future planning must include ecologists who can help their planning colleagues choose from among rational choices that balance ecological and human demands, provide advice when planning guidance is drafted, assist engineers in designing projects that lead to ecologically responsible solutions, and help monitor results

Biology · Ecosystem · Ecosystem Management · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geography · River management · American Environmental and Regional History · Archaeology and Natural History · Environmental Science · Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes · Ecology