Gary Brierley
Biographic Data
| ID | 193530 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gary Brierley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gary |
| FAMILY NAME | Brierley |
| SIGNATURE | BRIERLEY G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Auckland |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1310-1105 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 168 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
More-than-human geomorphologies
We propose more-than-human (MTH) geomorphologies as a conceptual reframing for undertaking socially situated, geographical and holistic landscape science. With increasing momentum in the environmental social sciences, more-than-human approaches offer less anthropocentric ways of perceiving landscapes and associated knowledge production. Here, the history of process conceptualisations in geomorphology, the study of the development and resultant la…
Stories and storytelling processes to support river knowledge and practice
We document how river stories, as sources of local knowledge, can inform management applications in the Waimatā Catchment on the East Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand. Analysis of semi-structured interviews with residents and users of the catchment shows how river stories express deep-seated connections for the river, emphasising concerns for river health, ancestral relations, recreational and aesthetic functions and biodiversity values. By opening …
Rivers in transition
Effective and locally supported river restoration requires attention to the social dimensions of rivers. This paper examines local perceptions of hydropower and restoration in the river Rönne å, an early case under Sweden’s National Plan for Modern Environmental Conditions for Hydropower. A mixed-methods approach, including a questionnaire and qualitative interviews, explores how inhabitants relate to their river and view the removal of three low…
Which realities are we trying to understand?
This autobiographical chapter reflects upon two approaches to looking after river diversity at different stages of my career. First, specialist scientific knowledge of river geomorphology underpinned the co-development and application of the River Styles Framework. This approach integrates generic geomorphic principles and open-ended guidelines to generate coherent scientific understanding of landscapes to inform place-based, catchment-specific a…
Listening To Rivers
This article explores cross-cultural approaches to river stories and riverine well-being, centring Indigenous and transdisciplinary perspectives. Originating in Aotearoa New Zealand, the ‘Let the River Speak’ project interweaves ancestral Māori philosophies, arts, and Earth sciences to engage with rivers as living communities of water, land, plants, animals, and people. The research highlights the Waimatā River in Te Tairāwhiti as a site of cultu…
Problematising the Anthropocene
Drawing on a Critical Physical Geography perspective, this paper problematises conceptualisations of the Anthropocene landscape of the Waimatā catchment on the East Cape, Gisborne district of Aotearoa New Zealand, through three lenses: forestry, restoration and indigeneity. Historical practices of arbitrary land division and resultant unsustainable forestry have caused multiple environmental, social and cultural problems within the catchment. Des…
Developing an equitable agenda for international capacity strengthening courses
Capacity strengthening activities – be that in the form of courses, workshops, seminars – have become embedded in research projects as a requirement for funding and as a means for researchers to demonstrate positive societal impacts. We apply qualitative research techniques including interviews, questionnaires and observations to scrutinise and document an international capacity strengthening course aimed at informing and supporting environmental…
An ethnogeomorphic case study of conservation practices in Southeast Brazil
Geoethical futures
This paper aims to foster an explicit geoethical orientation in physical geography. Using examples from Aotearoa New Zealand, we approach the work of physical geography with a set of ethical coordinates derived from our research, arguing that they allow for greater sensitivity in considering what is more-than-human in our research relationships. Working with these ethical co-ordinates lays the political groundwork for thinking and doing physical …
Finding the Voice of the River
A geomorphic assessment to inform strategic stream restoration planning in the Middle Fork John Day Watershed, Oregon, USA
A geomorphic assessment of the Middle Fork John Day Watershed, Oregon, USA, was used to generate a hierarchical, map-based understanding of watershed impairments and potential opportunities for improvements. Specifically, we (1) assessed river diversity (character and behavior) and patterns of reach types (and their controls); (2) evaluated the geomorphic condition of the streams; (3) interpreted their geomorphic recovery potential; and (4) synth…
Finding common ground
This situated case study outlines how a place-based landscape template provided an integrative platform for the environmental arm of a cross-disciplinary international education initiative, the Three Brothers Project, wherein geographers at the University of Auckland worked alongside engineers at Tsinghua University in Beijing to support collaborative research with grassland and agricultural scientists at Qinghai University in western China. Thes…
But what do you measure?’ Prospects for a constructive critical physical geography
Geomorphology shapes the way we perceive the world around us, making certain ways of understanding and interacting with landscapes more possible than others. Despite this, geomorphologists have a reputation for not engaging with philosophical questions regarding their work, particularly the role of theory, framing and language. Recent calls for a critical physical geography present significant opportunities for physical geographers to engage with…
Uma Perspectiva Pessoal sobre Práticas Metodológicas em Geomorfologia Fluvial Aplicada
What is useful geomorphology? How do we do it (what methods do we use)? How can we help ensure that it is used, and it is used effectively? Here I share a few thoughts from the perspective of an applied fluvial geomorphologist. This is very much a personal, reflective contribution. Now at the 'senior' end of professorial status (more than 10 years a full professor), I think it is interesting to reflect upon how methodological practices that I hav…
Cultivating critical practices in physical geography
Fundamental changes in the meaning and practice of environmental science are affecting - and are affected by - the theoretical, technological, pedagogical and institutional projects of physical geography. These changes have given rise to a range of 'integrative' (or integration-directed) disciplinary narratives which articulate a role for physical geographers within an engaged project of societal relevance and transformation. In this context, we …
Streams of Writing From a Fluid City
What is the relationship between qualitative research and environmental activism? At a time when the effects of environmental damage are becoming increasingly more visible and flooding our daily lives in unpredictable and sometimes devastating ways, how do qualitative methods of research and writing respond to current environmental challenges? This article discusses an arts-science-education collaboration titled fluid city, which disseminates cri…
Nature, culture, and the work of physical geography
Human–environment relationships are increasingly regarded as complex and worthy of interdisciplinary scrutiny. In this context, several physical geographers have made calls for their subdiscipline to take a ‘cultural turn’ and engage more fully with human elements of environmental change. However, despite sharing a general commitment to thinking about the material implications of human behaviours, definitions proposed for a cultural physical geog…
Alluvial terrace systems in Zhangjiajie of northwest Hunan, China
Theorizing ‘crisis’ as performative politics
As physical/environmental geographers, we respond to Larner (2011) in two ways. First, we argue that the crisis frame – which she caveats, but implicitly accepts – is problematic because it performs and legitimates a certain kind of politics, and pulls analytical foci away from other approaches. The ontological and epistemological moments of Larner’s crises require clarification, and the ‘value added’ from declaring yet more geographical crises n…
Approaches to Participation in Sustainable River Management
A scholarly article by authors Claire Gregory, Karen Fisher, and Gary Brierley, Nick Clifford published in The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic, and Social Sustainability: Annual Review
The Geographic Basis of Geomorphic Enquiry
Geomorphic enquiry ranges from interpretations of landscape evolution framed within geological sciences to contemporary process‐form analyses that build upon engineering applications. Geographic discourse blends these perspectives, emphasizing spatio‐temporal relationships across a range of scales. Following a brief historical overview, this article highlights how emerging themes in geomorphic enquiry emphasize nonlinear, emergent aspects of geom…
Governance Spaces for Sustainable River Management
There is widely documented evidence that rivers are one of the most degraded ecosystem types on the planet. As a consequence, concerted efforts have been made to improve the health of river systems in many parts of the world. Moves towards sustainable management approaches reflect transitions beyond the imposition of ‘command‐and‐control’ approaches towards ecosystem‐framed applications. Although this transition is now well‐understood in intellec…
Development and application of vision statements in river rehabilitation
Vision statements are promoted within river rehabilitation literature as a tool to guide a shared perspective of an improved environmental future. This study analyses the visioning process applied in Project Twin Streams, a community–local government partnership river rehabilitation project in Waitakere City, New Zealand. The process of developing the vision statement through to its implementation was traced. This process was critiqued through di…
Has river rehabilitation begun? Social perspectives from the Upper Hunter catchment, New South Wales, Australia
Landscape memory
The imprint of the past upon contemporary landscape forms and processes is differentiated in terms of geologic, climatic and anthropogenic memory. Geologic memory refers to controls exerted upon relief, erodibility, erosivity and accommodation space (areas in landscapes where sediments are stored and reworked). These factors set the imposed boundary conditions within which contemporary landscape‐forming processes operate. Climatic memory refers t…
Cultivating critical practices in physical geography
Fundamental changes in the meaning and practice of environmental science are affecting - and are affected by - the theoretical, technological, pedagogical and institutional projects of physical geography. These changes have given rise to a range of 'integrative' (or integration-directed) disciplinary narratives which articulate a role for physical geographers within an engaged project of societal relevance and transformation. In this context, we …
Nature, culture, and the work of physical geography
Human–environment relationships are increasingly regarded as complex and worthy of interdisciplinary scrutiny. In this context, several physical geographers have made calls for their subdiscipline to take a ‘cultural turn’ and engage more fully with human elements of environmental change. However, despite sharing a general commitment to thinking about the material implications of human behaviours, definitions proposed for a cultural physical geog…
But what do you measure?’ Prospects for a constructive critical physical geography
Geomorphology shapes the way we perceive the world around us, making certain ways of understanding and interacting with landscapes more possible than others. Despite this, geomorphologists have a reputation for not engaging with philosophical questions regarding their work, particularly the role of theory, framing and language. Recent calls for a critical physical geography present significant opportunities for physical geographers to engage with…
Geoethical futures
This paper aims to foster an explicit geoethical orientation in physical geography. Using examples from Aotearoa New Zealand, we approach the work of physical geography with a set of ethical coordinates derived from our research, arguing that they allow for greater sensitivity in considering what is more-than-human in our research relationships. Working with these ethical co-ordinates lays the political groundwork for thinking and doing physical …
Landscape memory
The imprint of the past upon contemporary landscape forms and processes is differentiated in terms of geologic, climatic and anthropogenic memory. Geologic memory refers to controls exerted upon relief, erodibility, erosivity and accommodation space (areas in landscapes where sediments are stored and reworked). These factors set the imposed boundary conditions within which contemporary landscape‐forming processes operate. Climatic memory refers t…
Landscape connectivity
Geographic concerns for spatial relationships lie at the heart of geomorphic applications in environmental management. The way in which landscape compartments fit together in a catchment influences the operation of biophysical fluxes, and hence the ways in which disturbance responses are mediated over time. These relationships reflect the connectivity of the landscape. A nested hierarchical framework that emphasizes differing forms of (dis)connec…
Has river rehabilitation begun? Social perspectives from the Upper Hunter catchment, New South Wales, Australia
Finding the Voice of the River
Knowing Your Place
Australia and New Zealand have been at the forefront of many advances in river management through policy and legislative initiatives and the introduction of participatory frameworks. In part this leadership role is a response to the pervasive extent and impact of post-colonial societies on Australasian environments. Core geographical concepts have contributed significantly to the increased recognition of a ‘sense of place’ in management practice.…
Temporal variability of climate in south‐eastern Australia
Inter‐decadal periods of high and low flood activity have been considered to be the dominant factor driving river metamorphosis in catchments along the New South Wales coast. Recent work has questioned the data analysis techniques used in delineating the so‐called flood‐and drought‐dominated regimes (FDRs/DDRs). Concerns have also been raised about the validity of invoking a climatic control for river metamorphosis documented during the post‐Euro…
Communicating Geomorphology
Communication strategies emphasize concerns for content (what is said) and process (the way things are said). Scientists have a responsibility to communicate the findings of their research, enhancing prospects that their insights can meaningfully inform management practice. When used effectively, principles from geomorphology provide critical guidance for environmental management. Three key geomorphic messages are outlined here: Respect diversity…
Naturalness and Place in River Rehabilitation
An authentic approach to river rehabilitation emphasizes concerns for the natural values of a given place. As landscape considerations fashion the physical template upon which biotic associations take place, various geomorphic issues must be addressed in framing rehabilitation activities that strive to improve river health. An open-ended approach to river classification promotes applications that appreciate the values of a given river, rather tha…
A fluvial sediment budget for upper Wolumla Creek, south coast, New South Wales, Australia
Extensive valley fills have formed at the base of the escarpment in granitic catchments along the south coast of NSW. On the 1865 portion plan, the valley fill surface in the upper part of Wolumla Creek, in the Bega River catchment, was intact, but within a few decades of European settlement of the area the valley fill had been incised. Today the incised channel is up to 10 m deep and 100 m wide. The catchment drains an area of just 18.2 km2. Bas…
Inside the “Black Box” of River Restoration
Mika, S., J. Hoyle, G. Kyle, T. Howell, B. Wolfenden, D. Ryder, D. Keating, A. Boulton, G. Brierley, A. P. Brooks, K. Fryirs, M. Leishman, M. Sanders, A. Arthington, R. Creese, M. Dahm, C. Miller, B. Pusey, and A. Spink. 2010. Inside the “black box” of river restoration: using catchment history to identify disturbance and response mechanisms to set targets for process-based restoration. Ecology and Society 15(4): 8. [online] URL: http://www.ecolo…
Late Quaternary river evolution of floodplain pockets along Mulloon Creek, New South Wales, Australia
Valley confinement along upper-middle reaches of Mulloon Creek, in the upper Shoalhaven catchment of southern New South Wales, Australia, restricts floodplain development to a series of distinct pockets. These pockets comprise a downstream-thinning wedge of vertically accreted fine-grained deposits atop basal gravels. Some time before 12 500 years ago a bedload-dominated river was transformed into a suspended load system. In the mid-late Holocene…
Developing an equitable agenda for international capacity strengthening courses
Capacity strengthening activities – be that in the form of courses, workshops, seminars – have become embedded in research projects as a requirement for funding and as a means for researchers to demonstrate positive societal impacts. We apply qualitative research techniques including interviews, questionnaires and observations to scrutinise and document an international capacity strengthening course aimed at informing and supporting environmental…
Streams of Writing From a Fluid City
What is the relationship between qualitative research and environmental activism? At a time when the effects of environmental damage are becoming increasingly more visible and flooding our daily lives in unpredictable and sometimes devastating ways, how do qualitative methods of research and writing respond to current environmental challenges? This article discusses an arts-science-education collaboration titled fluid city, which disseminates cri…
Governance Spaces for Sustainable River Management
There is widely documented evidence that rivers are one of the most degraded ecosystem types on the planet. As a consequence, concerted efforts have been made to improve the health of river systems in many parts of the world. Moves towards sustainable management approaches reflect transitions beyond the imposition of ‘command‐and‐control’ approaches towards ecosystem‐framed applications. Although this transition is now well‐understood in intellec…
Temporal variability of climate in south‐eastern Australia
Inter‐decadal periods of high and low flood activity have been considered to be the dominant factor driving river metamorphosis in catchments along the New South Wales coast. Recent work has questioned the data analysis techniques used in delineating the so‐called flood‐and drought‐dominated regimes (FDRs/DDRs). Concerns have also been raised about the validity of invoking a climatic control for river metamorphosis documented during the post‐Euro…
A fluvial sediment budget for upper Wolumla Creek, south coast, New South Wales, Australia
Extensive valley fills have formed at the base of the escarpment in granitic catchments along the south coast of NSW. On the 1865 portion plan, the valley fill surface in the upper part of Wolumla Creek, in the Bega River catchment, was intact, but within a few decades of European settlement of the area the valley fill had been incised. Today the incised channel is up to 10 m deep and 100 m wide. The catchment drains an area of just 18.2 km2. Bas…
An Initial Analysis of River Discharge and Rainfall in Coastal New South Wales, Australia Using Wavelet Transforms
In many coastal catchments of south eastern New South Wales, Australia, changes in river morphology are a response to human impact superimposed on spatial and temporal patterns of variability in precipitation and discharge. Understanding, and preferably quantifying, spatial and temporal patterns of hydrologic variability are essential to understanding natural changes, and to separate these from artificial changes in river systems. Prediction and …
Information Needs for Environmental-Flow Allocation
There is growing recognition at the global scale of the need to reverse, or at least mitigate, the damaging impacts of river regulation and overextraction of water. In New South Wales, the introduction of environmental flows, consolidated in the Water Management Act 2000, is taking place in the context of changing institutional structures, in particular the growth of adaptive management, integrated ecosystem-based perspectives, and increased comm…
Late Quaternary river evolution of floodplain pockets along Mulloon Creek, New South Wales, Australia
Valley confinement along upper-middle reaches of Mulloon Creek, in the upper Shoalhaven catchment of southern New South Wales, Australia, restricts floodplain development to a series of distinct pockets. These pockets comprise a downstream-thinning wedge of vertically accreted fine-grained deposits atop basal gravels. Some time before 12 500 years ago a bedload-dominated river was transformed into a suspended load system. In the mid-late Holocene…
The Relationship between Geomorphic River Structure and Coarse Particulate Organic Matter (CPOM) Storage along the Kangaroo River, New South Wales, Australia
Fluvial landforms provide a physical template upon which to appraise biophysical relationships along river courses. In this study, the spatial pattern of organic matter storage along the Kangaroo River, NSW, is related to geomorphic controls that operate at a range of scales within a nested hierarchy. This snapshot study of CPOM storage found that at the catchment scale the longitudinal pattern of coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM) storage …
Knowing Your Place
Australia and New Zealand have been at the forefront of many advances in river management through policy and legislative initiatives and the introduction of participatory frameworks. In part this leadership role is a response to the pervasive extent and impact of post-colonial societies on Australasian environments. Core geographical concepts have contributed significantly to the increased recognition of a ‘sense of place’ in management practice.…
Landscape connectivity
Geographic concerns for spatial relationships lie at the heart of geomorphic applications in environmental management. The way in which landscape compartments fit together in a catchment influences the operation of biophysical fluxes, and hence the ways in which disturbance responses are mediated over time. These relationships reflect the connectivity of the landscape. A nested hierarchical framework that emphasizes differing forms of (dis)connec…
Spatial Variability of Controls on Downstream Patterns of Sediment Storage
This study uses GIS techniques to examine the spatial distribution of stream power along major streamlines in the Lane Cove catchment in northern Sydney, Australia. Channel gradient estimates derived from a 5 m resolution digital elevation model (DEM) are combined with streamflow data to estimate stream power along river courses. Stream power and its constituent components are then related to a detailed field‐based assessment of sediment storage …
Communicating Geomorphology
Communication strategies emphasize concerns for content (what is said) and process (the way things are said). Scientists have a responsibility to communicate the findings of their research, enhancing prospects that their insights can meaningfully inform management practice. When used effectively, principles from geomorphology provide critical guidance for environmental management. Three key geomorphic messages are outlined here: Respect diversity…
Naturalness and Place in River Rehabilitation
An authentic approach to river rehabilitation emphasizes concerns for the natural values of a given place. As landscape considerations fashion the physical template upon which biotic associations take place, various geomorphic issues must be addressed in framing rehabilitation activities that strive to improve river health. An open-ended approach to river classification promotes applications that appreciate the values of a given river, rather tha…
Development and application of vision statements in river rehabilitation
Vision statements are promoted within river rehabilitation literature as a tool to guide a shared perspective of an improved environmental future. This study analyses the visioning process applied in Project Twin Streams, a community–local government partnership river rehabilitation project in Waitakere City, New Zealand. The process of developing the vision statement through to its implementation was traced. This process was critiqued through di…
Has river rehabilitation begun? Social perspectives from the Upper Hunter catchment, New South Wales, Australia
Landscape memory
The imprint of the past upon contemporary landscape forms and processes is differentiated in terms of geologic, climatic and anthropogenic memory. Geologic memory refers to controls exerted upon relief, erodibility, erosivity and accommodation space (areas in landscapes where sediments are stored and reworked). These factors set the imposed boundary conditions within which contemporary landscape‐forming processes operate. Climatic memory refers t…
Inside the “Black Box” of River Restoration
Mika, S., J. Hoyle, G. Kyle, T. Howell, B. Wolfenden, D. Ryder, D. Keating, A. Boulton, G. Brierley, A. P. Brooks, K. Fryirs, M. Leishman, M. Sanders, A. Arthington, R. Creese, M. Dahm, C. Miller, B. Pusey, and A. Spink. 2010. Inside the “black box” of river restoration: using catchment history to identify disturbance and response mechanisms to set targets for process-based restoration. Ecology and Society 15(4): 8. [online] URL: http://www.ecolo…
Alluvial terrace systems in Zhangjiajie of northwest Hunan, China
Theorizing ‘crisis’ as performative politics
As physical/environmental geographers, we respond to Larner (2011) in two ways. First, we argue that the crisis frame – which she caveats, but implicitly accepts – is problematic because it performs and legitimates a certain kind of politics, and pulls analytical foci away from other approaches. The ontological and epistemological moments of Larner’s crises require clarification, and the ‘value added’ from declaring yet more geographical crises n…
Approaches to Participation in Sustainable River Management
A scholarly article by authors Claire Gregory, Karen Fisher, and Gary Brierley, Nick Clifford published in The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic, and Social Sustainability: Annual Review
The Geographic Basis of Geomorphic Enquiry
Geomorphic enquiry ranges from interpretations of landscape evolution framed within geological sciences to contemporary process‐form analyses that build upon engineering applications. Geographic discourse blends these perspectives, emphasizing spatio‐temporal relationships across a range of scales. Following a brief historical overview, this article highlights how emerging themes in geomorphic enquiry emphasize nonlinear, emergent aspects of geom…
Governance Spaces for Sustainable River Management
There is widely documented evidence that rivers are one of the most degraded ecosystem types on the planet. As a consequence, concerted efforts have been made to improve the health of river systems in many parts of the world. Moves towards sustainable management approaches reflect transitions beyond the imposition of ‘command‐and‐control’ approaches towards ecosystem‐framed applications. Although this transition is now well‐understood in intellec…
Nature, culture, and the work of physical geography
Human–environment relationships are increasingly regarded as complex and worthy of interdisciplinary scrutiny. In this context, several physical geographers have made calls for their subdiscipline to take a ‘cultural turn’ and engage more fully with human elements of environmental change. However, despite sharing a general commitment to thinking about the material implications of human behaviours, definitions proposed for a cultural physical geog…
Streams of Writing From a Fluid City
What is the relationship between qualitative research and environmental activism? At a time when the effects of environmental damage are becoming increasingly more visible and flooding our daily lives in unpredictable and sometimes devastating ways, how do qualitative methods of research and writing respond to current environmental challenges? This article discusses an arts-science-education collaboration titled fluid city, which disseminates cri…
Cultivating critical practices in physical geography
Fundamental changes in the meaning and practice of environmental science are affecting - and are affected by - the theoretical, technological, pedagogical and institutional projects of physical geography. These changes have given rise to a range of 'integrative' (or integration-directed) disciplinary narratives which articulate a role for physical geographers within an engaged project of societal relevance and transformation. In this context, we …
But what do you measure?’ Prospects for a constructive critical physical geography
Geomorphology shapes the way we perceive the world around us, making certain ways of understanding and interacting with landscapes more possible than others. Despite this, geomorphologists have a reputation for not engaging with philosophical questions regarding their work, particularly the role of theory, framing and language. Recent calls for a critical physical geography present significant opportunities for physical geographers to engage with…
Uma Perspectiva Pessoal sobre Práticas Metodológicas em Geomorfologia Fluvial Aplicada
What is useful geomorphology? How do we do it (what methods do we use)? How can we help ensure that it is used, and it is used effectively? Here I share a few thoughts from the perspective of an applied fluvial geomorphologist. This is very much a personal, reflective contribution. Now at the 'senior' end of professorial status (more than 10 years a full professor), I think it is interesting to reflect upon how methodological practices that I hav…
Geography (27 works) · Environmental Science (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Geology (13 works) · Environmental resource management (12 works) · Political science (12 works) · Drainage basin (11 works) · Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes (11 works) · Ecology (10 works)