Urban Rivers

PL: Wieloletnia presja antropogeniczna wywarła głębokie zmiany w krajobrazie doliny Kłodnicy w Gliwicach. W artykule przedstawiono różne warianty rewitalizacji doliny rzeki Kłodnicy, możliwe do realizacji w ramach funduszy unijnych, krajowych, partnerstwa publiczno-prywatnego i budżetu obywatelskiego. Zdecydowana większość mieszkańców (81%) źle ocenia stan badanego odcinka doliny, wskazując na potrzebę jej rewitalizacji (76%). Zaproponowane w pracy rozwiązania, zgodne z koncepcją zielonej architektury, pozwoliłyby na odtworzenie potencjału ekohydrologicznego doliny Kłodnicy i stworzenie przyjaznej dla mieszkańców przestrzeni publicznej. Przywrócenie właściwego stanu ekosystemów rzeki umożliwiłoby uzyskanie wielu usług ekosystemowych (poprawa bezpieczeństwa powodziowego, poprawa warunków aerosanitarnych, estetyzacja krajobrazu), podnoszących jakość i standard życia mieszkańców. Przewidziane w projekcie obiekty i infrastruktura stanowiłyby interesującą ofertę spędzania czasu wolnego oraz służyłyby podniesieniu świadomości ekologicznej mieszkańców. EN: Long-term anthropopressure caused negative changes in the landscape of the Kłodnica valley in Gliwice. The article presents various variants of revitalization of the Kłodnica valley. They are possible to realize within European funds, national funds, public-private partnership and the civil budget. Most inhabitants (81%) poorly assessed the state of the studied section of the Kłodnica valley. The inhabitants pointed also at the need to the revitalization of the valley (76%). Solutions proposed in the article, according to green architecture concept, would allow the reconstruction of the ecohydrological potential of the Kłodnica valley and creating friendly public space. The restoration of the proper state of river ecosystems would allow many valuable ecosystem services (improving flood safety, micro-climate regulation, aesthetization of landscape), which increases the standard and quality of life of inhabitants. Objects and infrastructure proposed in the project would be an interesting offer for spending leisure time and would increase the ecological awareness of inhabitants.

Outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) is an indicator of urban-environmental sustainability. A better understanding of OTC requires exploring the effects of contextual, non-thermal and human-related factors on thermal sensation votes (TSV) in addition to the long-studied thermophysiological and microclimatic factors. In this research, the Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) structure was used for grouping thermophysiological and non-thermal factors in three environments: corporeal (level of physical activity, level of clothing, gender, age and skin tone), mental (perceived urban agreeability, perceived urban insecurity and perceived urban noise) and social (company, occupation and cultural background). Field surveys were performed in three representative weeks of the annual climate-type in Cuenca, Ecuador during the hottest month (January), a cooler month (July) and an intermediate month (April), surveying 2321 users of two urban sites located at representative areas of the Tomebamba riverbanks. S...

Introduction
It is indisputable that cities have been comprised essential place today throughout the world. By the industrial development particularly, the world is becoming increasingly urbanized. In 1900, only 160 million people, one tenth of the world’s population were living in the cities. By the 2000s, more than half of the world has been living in urban areas. As Boone (2006, p.36) states, “the future of the world is urban, and the problems that cities and their environments face must therefore be addressed”. While the urban population throughout the world grows, and the climate change is been lived, the effects of urbanization on water resources and rivers are increasing. The current problems with urban rivers in general are closely concerned with achieving eco-efficiency of urban water system and rivers.
Cities are playing a vital role in our societies. In difficult economic times, more than ever before, it is essential to re-invest in our cities’ infrastructure and environmental improvement. After being neglected for decades, since the second half of the 20th century, with more attention given to sustainability of resources, an awareness has grown of the vital role of urban rivers as a resource for humans and a lifeline for cities. As a result of the problems associated with urban rivers cannot be isolated from the water system; a new approach was developed for the last decades, one that is integrative, taking the problem of rivers within the water system. Aiming to create sustainable cities, there is a concentration on the development of many transformation projects including urban waters.
In this regard, the paper aims to better understand the challenges on urban rivers in the meaning of its integration to urban water system. To be able to clarify the challenges, the discussion extends into the old and emerging paradigms. The discussion is supported by major practices on rivers and comparative analysis on them conducted. Evaluating Porsuk River as a case, Turkey in accordance with the contemporary context, provides a framework on the dynamics of new approaches in Turkey as a final outcome. Before it, urbanization and water as a starting point is being addressed below.

We trace the relationship between cities and rivers throughout history, following the evolving riverfront through the succession of shifting attitudes towards the river. From the early river-as-god, provider and destroyer, onto the harnessing of the river for economy and protection, through cycles of destruction and neglect, we analyse the shifts in uses, scale and structure of the waterfronts leading up to what we consider to be an era of opportunity, marked by a renewed awareness of the river's importance as a natural ecosystem corridor and as a major component of any riverine city's green structure.

The south bank of an urban river is the subject of this proposal that combines large-scale and economy of means: it proposes the construction of a continuum of geographical magnitude through the discreet introduction of street furniture and a single criterion of tree plantations and pavements.

Streams draining urban catchments ubiquitously undergo negative physical and ecosystem changes, recognized to be primarily driven by frequent stormwater runoff input. The common management intervention is rehabilitation of channel morphology. Despite engineering design intentions, ecohydraulic benefits of urban channel rehabilitation are largely unknown and likely limited. This investigation uses an ecohydraulic modeling approach to investigate the performance of alternative channel design configurations intended to restore key ecosystem functioning in urban streams. Channel reconfiguration design scenarios, specified to emulate the range of channel topographic complexity often used in rehabilitation are compared against a reference ‘natural’ scenario using ecologically relevant hydraulic metrics. The results showed that the ecohydraulic conditions were incremental improved with the addition of natural oscillations to an increasing number of individual topographic variables in a degraded channel. Results showed that reconfiguration reduced excessive frequency of bed mobility, loss of habitat and hydraulic diversity particularly as more topographic variables were added. However, the results also showed that none of the design scenarios returned the ecohydraulics to their reference conditions. This indicate that channel-based restoration can offer some potential changes to hydraulic habitat conditions but are unlikely to completely mitigate the effects of hydrologic change. We suggest that while reach scale channel modification may be beneficial to restore urban stream, addressing altered hydrology is critical to fully recover natural ecosystem processes.

Le Guadalquivir à Cordoue est un Fleuve en Projet.

Depuis les années 1980, de multiples opérations ont tenté de profiter de ce grand vide comme potentiel d’une «modernisation nécessaire». La candidature de Cordoue comme Capitale Europénne de la Culture 2016 prévoyait récemment de faire du fleuve le protagoniste de son attractivité. Mais ce titre européen n’aura finalement pas été obtenu par la ville et son fleuve reste aujourd’hui un espace en définition. À cette image de Fleuve en Projet, se superposent l’image d’un Fleuve Pittoresque, qui renvoie aux images du passé, et celle d’un Fleuve Vivant, une préoccupation écologique récente.

Notre étude sur les imaginaires du fleuve à Cordoue analyse cette coexistance de grandes images, leurs contradictions, leurs dynamiques, dans le but d’apporter un nouveau regard sur les espaces fluviaux des métropoles contemporaines.

O estudo da composição do fitoplâncton torna-se essencial quando se percebe a importância e
influência deste na dinâmica da vida aquática. Conhecer os seus componentes, sua frequência e a
relação com os processos físico-químicos ocorrentes no meio traduz-se no conhecimento da
biodiversidade e do sistema ecológico que ali se desenvolve. Desta forma, este ensaio busca
demonstrar o estado da arte das pesquisas fitoplanctônica no Brasil, bem como o desenvolvimento
destas na região Amazônica e no Estado do Amapá. Observa-se que os estudos sobre fitoplâncton
no Brasil vêm crescendo com o decorrer do tempo, principalmente, em função da formação de novos
profissionais na área. Entretanto na Amazônia tais estudos ainda apresentam-se de forma
insuficiente. No estado do Amapá, estudos ficológicos (pesquisas sobre fitoplâncton) ainda são
pouco desenvolvidos. A geração de dados e informações acerca de sua biodiversidade é primordial
para sua conservação e preservação, como também para subsidiar o desenvolvimento de pesquisas
aplicadas na área.

Conventional urban drainage approaches have historically focused on the volume of stormwater to be displaced with the aim of moving it as fast and as far as possible from the city. They have also been negligent regarding water quality and the inherent value of watercourses to distinct forms of life in cities, from maintaining biodiversity to providing recreational space for residents. Contemporary responses to these issues point to a paradigm change: They seek to replicate the natural mechanisms of absorption and retention, with the aim of addressing pluvial drainage needs closer to the site of origin. This article aims to explore the extent to which such an approach could be accommodated in one dense and highly impervious setting in the Global South. Specifically, it compares urban morphology, land value, hydraulic performance, and politico-institutional conditions of grey and Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) scenarios in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The findings suggest that even in ve...

W ubiegłym roku nakładem Wydawnictwa KEW ukazała się książka o Odrze, jakiej  od lat brakowało. Jest to pozycja wyjątkowa, która z wielu względów powinna zwrócić uwagę czytelników zainteresowanych „księżną polskich rzek”. Niestety, niewątpliwą wartość tej unikatowej publikacji obniżają błędy, których nie mogę pozostawić  bez komentarza.

The poster attempts to display how flowing waters are integrated to urban life in a sustainability manner. For this aim, urban river rehabilitation process in the light of ecocity approach is going to be explored. While the growth is proceeding due to population increase and climate change, the effects of urbanization on rivers as in all kind of water resources are rising. The current problems with urban rivers in general are closely concerned with achieving sustainability of urban water system and water-sensitive urbanization. Rivers have a long-standing relationship with urbanization since the ancient civilizations. During the various stages of cities in history, rivers have been standing the lifeline of cities. However, with the past practices that polluting and covering them up after industrial development, they turned into detached places. Since the second part of the last century, for healthy, ecological, physical, and economical reasons, urban rivers have been started to be subject of renewal. In recent decades, there is a greater understanding of the vital role of them. Instead of independent and one-dimensional practices, the urban rivers have become to be seen as a vital part of urban water system and of the city itself. While rehabilitating urban rivers, recovering river health can be ensured provided that the entire urban water ecosystem is taken into consideration. The ecocity approach is one of the major new approaches that geared toward achieving a healthy city, and sustainability of water system is the significant goal within this approach. In this context, emerging approaches in restoring urban rivers and the challenges of ecocities is addressed. The practices of ecocities on urban water cycle management are attempted to show by summarizing experiences of several cities around the world. The challenges on urban rivers and their rehabilitation is underpinned by a case from the city of Eskişehir, Turkey.

El objetivo del texto es describir y explicar los cambios en el paisaje urbano de la capital del estado de Aguascalientes durante las primeras décadas del siglo XX. Destaco dos elementos: el vínculo de los vecinos con los ríos y estanques de la ciudad, y el nuevo sistema de drenaje. El estudio se basa en tres tipos de fuentes documentales: informes oficiales, quejas de organizaciones vecinales y prensa local. Con esto se demuestran las expectativas y estrategias de los grupos populares al modificar el paisaje. Además, al transformarse el espacio urbano se afectó la vida cotidiana, las relaciones políticas y la lucha por el control de los recursos naturales.

According to the UN, in the next 20 years, most of the world's population will live in urban areas. Cities consume a high amount of resources, between this water, for their sustenance, hence the greatest necessity of sustainable development plans. What viable options or strategies can we consider in Latin America such that it can resist the economic, political, and social changes that it is facing? Through prospective studies, in case of Guadalajara, it is possible to determinate how water can generate clean energy, and which are the other strategic areas to empower the city through decarbonization with an interoperative and smart loop system of co-benefits. This study can help in public policy decisions of medium-sized cities in Latin America.

When choosing the Belo Horizonte’s village for the new capital from Minas Gerais, at 1894 CCNC took several studies to making the plant the new capital. The article intend to show the importance producing maps by the CCNC for camp and farms expropriation. For such was made a full map of the administrative and legal. Two farms expropriated covered much of the headwaters from Leitão’s stream, the object of this study. This cartography enables to understand lands extent that were occupied before occupation systematic of the Valley in coming decades. To understand the dynamics of occupation of the valley looked beyond the
maps produced by the CCNC, cadastral plans from the Municipality Belo Horizonte in several times as well as images and aerial photographs. Analysing cadastral plans can be divided into three periods the occupation of the valley, the first between 1899 and 1920, the second from 1930 to late 1960 and the third period from 1970 to the present day. The spatial change is seen today in the Valley, therefore, originate in
this process.

Water coursess are segments in the country increasing its recreational potential.The current goal of revitalization measures in the landscape primarily consists of the optimization of landscape water regime, incl. flood control measures and the promotion of biodiversity, but the current philosophy speaks of multifunctional land usage.  In the society there has been indicated the necessity for recreation, because a large part of the population lives in urban settlements and is employed in an artificial technical environment that has largely inadequate sanitary conditions (unfavourable microclimate, noise, dust, etc.). Recreation as a social phenomenon is therefore a permanent part of the lifestyle in economically developed countries. However, the revitalization is currently underappreciated in the Czech Republic and it is important to increase recreational potential of the landscape. The subject of this article is
evaluation of regulated watercourse Ostravice river in Ostrava urban area . The model area of river Ostravice in Ostrava region is described here. In the model area is evaluated some elements of recreational potential of revitalization by the proposed methodology.The outcome of the work is to propose an ongoing systematic procedure for assessment of the relevance of revitalization actions in terms of the recreational potential of the landscape and their impact on the development opportunities of the region.

MOOC is an acronym  for Massive Online learning Platform. Simply put, an infinite number of people can register to do a course on a MOOC. The Aqua MOOC is the first of its kind, dealing specifically with water and its inter-relationships with humans, cultures and natures.

This AquaMOOc is divided into 5 Learning Modules suitable for the general public, upper secondary school and entry level university. In the fifth Module participants are invited to contribute their own water story from wherever they are in the world.

Registration is free. at https://imoox.at/course/AquaMOOC?lang=en
Copy and paste into your browser

We trace the relationship between cities and rivers throughout history, following the evolving riverfront through the succession of shifting attitudes towards the river. From the early river-as-god, provider and destroyer, onto the harnessing of the river for economy and protection, through cycles of detruction and neglect, we analyse the shifts in uses, scale and structure of the waterfronts leading up to what we consider to be an era of opportunity, marked by a renewed awareness of the river's importance as a natural ecosystem corridor and as a major component of any riverine city's green structure.

In a time of environmental devastation and the need for paradigm shifts in order to govern for change in South Africa, how does one address government officials on what to do, without going around the old, familiar circuits of polemic that leads to relational breakdown?

This essay is an experiment in environmental humanities regarding the nature of the Los Angeles River. Twofold in its approach, the experiment combines fieldwork on the current conditions of an urban waterway with research on textual representations of rivers. The primary goal of the experiment is to investigate the ways in which humanistic inquiry might serve as a means of conceptually “daylighting” a river. “Daylighting” most commonly refers to the process of opening or redirecting the channel of a stream that has been covered or obstructed by human structures, a physical return to the light of day. Inspired by the term’s metaphorical potential, I have adopted it as a key component in an area of study I call “textual potamology”: an exploration of the river and its history in an effort to imagine new ways of understanding a river’s nature. Textual potamology pursues the possibility of bringing to light not only the river but our thought processes, our social practices and cultural biases regarding waterways. This essay considers some ways in which non-fiction and its interpretation might cast some daylight on the L.A. River.