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Prof. Karl Wantzen - Development(s) of the River Culture Concept
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Descriptif
Rivers give rhythm to all life in theircatchments. Floods and droughts trigger both, etho-physiological adaptations bybiota, resulting in biodiversity, and one species, H. sapiens, resulting incultural diversity. The River Culture Concept (2016) takes an attempt tore-establish harmony between humans and rivers. The five tenets of the conceptinclude, (i) reconsidering priorities onthe use of riverine assets, (ii) integrating the natural flow regime into rivermanagement, (iii) rediscovering traditional ecological knowledge (and by nomeans all ancient use forms), (iv) copying natural adaptive strategies(“ecosystem bionics”), and (v) a territorial reorganization, making thecatchment the central administrative unit (“bassin de responsabilité”). Practicalsteps focus on human-river-relationships including (i) a typology of theirexpressions (e.g., spiritual, religious, utilitaristic, medical), (ii) atemporal and causal analysis of the ruptures, (iii) an appreciation ofstill-existing, newly developed, or transformed River Culture Actions that helpto manage river better, (iv) specific case studies along a gradient from moretraditional to highly modernized cultures (focus on urban systems), (v)transfer and transformation studies how this knowledge can be integrated anddistributed to manage rivers better. This is documented in a series of papers,PhD studies and the recent book “River Culture – Life in the rhythm of thewaters” (UNESCO Publishing, 2nd half of 2021).
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