River Channel Management Towards sustainable catchment hydrosystems

River Channel Management is the first book to deal comprehensively with recent revolutions in river channel management. It explores the multi-disciplinary nature of river channel management in relation to modern management techniques that bear the background of the entire drainage basin in mind, use channel restoration where appropriate, and are designed to be sustainable.



River Channel Management is divided into five sections:

·The Introduction outlines the need for river channel management .

·Retrospective Review offers an overview of twentieth century engineering methods and the ways that river channel systems operate.

·Realisation explains how greater understanding of river channel adjustments, channel hazards and river basin planning created a context for twenty-first century management.

·Requirements for Management explains and examines environmental assessment, restoration-based approaches, and methods that work towards 'design with nature'

·Final Revision speculates about prospects for twenty-first century river channel management.



River Channel Management is written for higher-level undergraduates and for postgraduates in geography, ecology, engineering, planning, geology and environmental science, for professionals involved in river channel management, and for staff in environmental agencies.

Part One Introduction
The need for river channel management
Part Two Retrospect
Land use changes conditioning river management
River channel management: early 20th century approaches
Part Three: Realisation
Consequences of river engineering
River channel sensitivity to change
Ecological unity of the river corridor
Integrated river basin planning
Part Four: Requirements
Post-modern river management - river restoration
Environmental assessment in support of river channel management
Environmental aligned river engineering - working with the river
Part Five: Revision
Design with nature: prospects for 21st century river channel management.

Dr Peter Downs is currently Senior Fluvial Geomorphologist at Stillwater Sciences, Berkeley, California. He has taught and researched extensively on geomorphological applications to river channel management and restoration.

Professor Ken Gregory is currently Visiting Professor, University of Southampton and Emeritus Professor, University of London. He was awarded the Founders Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for research on river channels. He is the author of Palaeohydrology: Understanding Global Change (Wiley, 2003) and The Changing Nature of Physical Geography (Arnold, 2000).