Managing urban riverscapes: towards a cultural perspective of land and water governance

Abstract

Urban riverscapes are facing diverse demands concerning riparian uses, ecological, economic and social functionalities, and aesthetic questions. One of the main challenges today is the implementation of an integrative perspective on riverscapes to overcome the horizontal frontiers of traditional water management (water governance) and urban planning (land governance). Led by the theoretical framework of planning culture, the article shows the different rationalities and governance approaches from a cultural perspective. Finally, two quite different local planning cultures are outlined to illustrate the cultural variety with which the challenges of sustainable urban riverscapes are managed.

Keywords:

• urban river management
• organizational culture
• land and water governance
• Germany

Legal frameworks

Baugesetzbuch (BauGB) in der Fassung vom 23.09.2004 (BGBl. I S. 2414) zuletzt geändert durch Gesetz vom 11.06.2013 (BGBl. I 2005, 1548).

Directive 2007/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on the assessment and management of flood risks (Flood Directive).

Gesetz zur Ordnung des Wasserhaushalts 2010 (Wasserhaushaltsgesetz) (WHG) vom 31. Juli 2009 (BGBl. I 2009, 2585).

Notes

1. IWRM has been defined by the Global Water Partnership (2000) as ‘a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems’ (p. 22). This approach is often used by water management research projects, and sometimes by environmental science researchers, but less frequently in spatial planning. In the context of this article, IWRM is associated with an integrative claim of riverscape development, but in a much broader field (as water resources include much more than just rivers).

2. Referring to the (critical) discussions about a coastal manager (Billé, 2008) or a landscape manager (Pryce, 1991), a river manager is not per se desirable, either. The strong point of interest behind such an institution is to foster the integration process in a formal way instead of accepting a multilayered system typical for its complex allocation of roles.