Perspectives on the potential for reconciliation ecology in urban riverscapes.
2009
Francis, R. A.
Urban riverscapes represent some of the most heavily engineered and degraded freshwater ecosystems in the world, and offer limited opportunities for restoration or rehabilitation because of continued anthropogenic use. The future of maintaining biodiversity and ecological quality in anthropogenic ecosystems may rest with the incorporation of novel techniques for habitat creation and improvement into the management of such systems, to reconcile the ecological requirements of the ecosystem with anthropogenic resource use. This emerging field is termed 'reconciliation ecology' and its principles may be particularly relevant to urban riverscapes. This review firstly draws a distinction between river restoration and rehabilitation on the one hand and reconciliation ecology on the other, before reviewing key factors relating to possible habitat creation and improvement methods for heavily engineered urban riverscapes, within the context of reconciliation ecology. Examples are mainly drawn from the UK, but can have international applications. Although such methods are relatively unexplored at the present time, this represents a useful research area that may engender collaborations between restoration researchers and practitioners in urban regions.
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