Rivers for Life: Managing Water For People And Nature

Book Description

"...a clarion call to society for the need to balance human demands with the needs of our world's rivers, the arterial system of life on this planet. The authors describe the vanguard movement to restore rivers and to reconnect rivers with their flood plains, portraying the under-appreciated life support services our rivers perform, their ecological function, and the threats to riverine ecosystems." -MIKE DOMBECK, CHIEF EMERITUS OF THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE AND PIONEER PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STEVENS POINT

"Finally! A book that pays attention to flow, not just pollutants, as central to river restoration. Blending science and readability, Rivers for Life offers refreshing insights into allocating limited water to meet the needs of humans and rivers." -JAMES R. KARR, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE

The conventional approach to river protection has focused on water quality and maintaining some "minimum" flow that was thought necessary to ensure the viability of a river. In recent years, however, scientific research has underscored the idea that the ecological health of a river system depends not on a minimum amount of water at any one time but on the naturally variable quantity and timing of flows throughout the year.

In Rivers for Life, leading water experts Sandra Postel and Brian Richter explain why restoring and preserving more natural river flows are key to sustaining freshwater biodiversity and healthy river systems, and describe innovative policies, scientific approaches, and management reforms for achieving those goals. Sandra Postel and Brian Richter: explain the value of healthy rivers to human and ecosystem health; describe the ecological processes that support river ecosystems and how they have been disrupted by dams, diversions, and other alterations; consider the scientific basis for determining how much water a river needs; examine new management paradigms focused on restoring flow patterns and sustaining ecological health; assess the policy options available for managing rivers and other freshwater systems; explore building blocks for better river governance

Sandra Postel and Brian Richter offer case studies of river management from the United States (the San Pedro, Green, and Missouri), Australia (the Brisbane), and South Africa (the Sabie), along with numerous examples of new and innovative policy approaches that are being implemented in those and other countries.

Rivers for Life presents a global perspective on the challenges of managing water for people and nature, with a concise yet comprehensive overview of the relevant science, policy, and management issues. It presents exciting and inspirational information for anyone concerned with water policy, planning and management, river conservation, freshwater biodiversity, or related topics.

Customer Reviews:

A Gentle Warrior.......2005-10-26

Sandra Postel writes in a clear and lyrical style which is entertaining to read. Her content is not overly technical nor is it patronisingly simplistic. Postel has a pleasing habit of rejecting jargon and buzz phrases.

I found her assertions, research and conclusions to be creditable. I enjoyed the breadth of the discussion.
She is not strident nor angry in her criticism of individuals or corporations, rather she lets good science do her talking.

Postel enjoys a wide audience and is often represented in university reading lists. She is one of the more enjoyable reads to be found there.

a wisdom runs through it.......2004-03-13

This book, like previous works by Sandra Postel, is a clarion warning call about the dangers in how we have been managing our waters. The message from this book that is of particular importance, is that truly successful, and therefore sustainable, environmental management is really just as much about managing people as it is about managing natural systems. For this reason, I have placed this important book on the reading list for my watershed management course at Harvard. And also, I am grateful that Sandra Postel agreed to write a front-end blurb for my recently published (by Green Frigate Books) book entitled Deep Immersion: The Experience of Water.

Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management

Average customer rating:

Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management
Bryan G. Norton
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Sustainable Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Ecology | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Renewable Energy | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Outdoors & Nature | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Searching for Sustainability: Interdisciplinary Essays in the Philosophy of Conservation Biology (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology)
The Sustainability Revolution: Portrait Of A Paradigm Shift
Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World
Price, Principle, and the Environment
Moral and Political Reasoning in Environmental Practice

ASIN: 0226595218

Book Description

While many disciplines contribute to environmental conservation, there is little successful integration of science and social values. Arguing that the central problem in conservation is a lack of effective communication, Bryan Norton shows in Sustainability how current linguistic resources discourage any shared, multidisciplinary public deliberation over environmental goals and policy. In response, Norton develops a new, interdisciplinary approach to defining sustainability—the cornerstone of environmental policy—using philosophical and linguistic analyses to create a nonideological vocabulary that can accommodate scientific and evaluative environmental discourse.

Emphasizing cooperation and adaptation through social learning, Norton provides a practical framework that encourages an experimental approach to language clarification and problem formulation, as well as an interdisciplinary approach to creating solutions. By moving beyond the scientific arena to acknowledge the importance of public discourse, Sustainability offers an entirely novel approach to environmentalism.

Ecology, Engineering, and Management: Reconciling Ecosystem Rehabilitation and Service Reliability

Average customer rating:

Ecology, Engineering, and Management: Reconciling Ecosystem Rehabilitation and Service Reliability
Michel J. G. van Eeten , and Emery Roe
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Public Policy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Urban Planning & Development | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0195139682

Book Description

Ecology, Engineering, and the Paradox of Management is the first book that addresses and reconciles what many take to be the core paradox facing environmental decision-makers and stakeholders: How do they restore the environment while at the same time provide ever more services reliably from that environment, including clean air, water and energy for more and more people? The book provides a conceptual framework, empirical case analyses, and organizational proposals to resolve the paradox, be it in the US, Europe, or elsewhere. Thus, Ecology, Engineering, and the Paradox of Management has multiple audiences. First are the key professions involved in the protection and improvement of ecosystems and in the provision and delivery of services from those ecosystems. These include ecologists (and other natural scientists such as conservation biologists, climatologists, forest scientists, and toxicologists), engineers (as well as hydrologists, environmental engineers, civil engineers, and line operators), modeling and gaming experts, managers, planners, and power, agriculture, and recreation communities. Another audience includes university researchers in ecology, conservation biology, engineering, the policy sciences, and resource management. Those interested in interdisciplinary approaches in these fields will also find the book especially helpful. Finally, those interested in the Everglades, the Columbia River Basin, San Francisco Bay-Delta, and the Green Heart of western Netherlands will find new insights here, as the book provides a detailed examination of the paradox in each of these cases.

The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services

Average customer rating:

The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services
J.B. Ruhl , Steven E. Kraft , and Christopher L. Lant
Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Environmental & Natural Resources Law | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Law | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Environmental & Natural Resources Law | Law | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Law of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management (University Casebook Series)
The Conservation Professional's Guide to Working with People
Habitat Fragmentation and Landscape Change: An Ecological and Conservation Synthesis
Cases and Materials on Land Use (American Casebook Series)
Corridor Ecology: The Science and Practice of Linking Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation

ASIN: 1559630957

Book Description

The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services is the first comprehensive exploration of the status and future of natural capital and ecosystem services in American law and policy. The book develops a framework for thinking about ecosystem services across their ecologic, geographic, economic, social, and legal dimensions and evaluates the prospects of crafting a legal infrastructure that can help build an ecosystem service economy that is as robust as existing economies for manufactured goods, natural resource commodities, and human-provided services. The book examines the geographic, ecological, and economic context of ecosystem services and provides a baseline of the current status of ecosystem services in law and society. It identifies shortcomings of current law and policy and the critical areas for improvement and forges an approach for the design of new law and policy for ecosystem services.

Included are a series of nine empirical case studies that explore the problems caused by society’s failure to properly value natural capital. Among the case study topics considered are water issues, The Conservation Reserve Program, the National Conservation Buffer Initiative, the agricultural policy of the European Union, wetland mitigation, and pollution trading.

The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services is a groundbreaking look at the question of whether and how law and policy can shape a sustainable system of ecosystem service management. It is an accessible and informative work for faculty, students, and policy makers concerned with ecology, economics, geography, political science, environmental studies, law, and related fields.

Biotic Regulation Of The Environment: Key Issue of Global Change (Springer Praxis Books / Environmental Sciences)

Average customer rating:

Biotic Regulation Of The Environment: Key Issue of Global Change (Springer Praxis Books / Environmental Sciences)
V. G. Gorshkov
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Public Policy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Renewable Energy | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Ecology | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Outdoors & Nature | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Professional & Technical | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Science | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Outdoors & Nature | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 185233181X

Book Description

It is not possible to understand the apparent stability of the Earth's climate and environment unless we can fully understand how the best possible environmental conditions may be maintained for life to exist. Human colonization of areas with natural biota, for industrial or agricultural activities, will lead to degradation of those natural communities and violation of the BRE (biotic regulation of the environment) principle.
Thus to maintain an environment on Earth that is suitable for life it is necessary to preserve and allow the natural recovery of natural biotic communities, both in the oceans and on land. This book is devoted to a quantitative version of the BRE concept, and is built on a foundation of modern scientific knowledge accumulated in the fields of physics and biology.

Average customer rating:

A voice of reason

Defending Illusions
Allan K. Fitzsimmons
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Public Affairs & Administration | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0847694216

Book Description

Defending Illusions examines the science, philosophy, and law of ecosystem management. Allan Fitzsimmons clearly illustrates how efforts to make federal protection of ecosystems the centerpiece of national environmental policy rest on weak science and a worldview that places concern for the well-being of nature ahead of the well-being of people.

Customer Reviews:

A voice of reason.......2000-02-29

If there is any cause we are willing to support without any reservation, it is the cause for environmental preservation. Who among us is against clean air, unpolluted streams, cute bears, and fluffy birds? It is self-evident that saving the Earth for future generations is our supreme duty. Along with democracy, nature is the closest substitute for God that we worship now. Given this sanctity of the environmental cause, "Defending Illusions" is an eye-opening book. It is shocking to learn how twisted, exploited, and perverted the cause of the environment is, of course with good intentions, by "green" enthusiasts and even professional ecologists. Dr. Fitzsimmons demonstrates how hollow buzzwords are such as ecosystem health or ecosystem integrity. Yet, the outcome of these illusions is quite tangible; it is embodied in thousands of government regulations epitomized by the term "ecosystem management." As a good writer, Dr. Fitzsimmons starts with tracing the spiritual history and emotional atmosphere that made possible those illusions. Then he turns to the simplest thing any ecosystem manager must know: where to manage. To restore ecosystem health or ecosystem integrity we need to know what an ecosystem is, where one ends and another starts. The problem is that nobody can answer this basic question. Unlike organisms, which always have specialized structures (bark, skin, etc.) that separate them abruptly from the environment, ecosystems do not have well-defined boundaries other than those produced by changes in the physical environment. Anyone is free to delineate an ecosystem at will. Surely, freedom in general is admirable, but the lack of identifiable boundaries turns ecosystem management into irreproducible science. In the section "Are Ecosystems Alive?" Dr. Fitzsimmons shows that even as a conceptual entity ecosystems do not fare well. After all, Tansley introduced this term to denote a combination of Clements's superorganism and the environment. It is curious that, although the concept of superorganism is largely discredited, the ecosystem, which is so to speak a superorganism on clay footing, is still around. The confusion between an ecosystem and an organism (or superorganism) is at the core of the heated struggle for ecosystem health and integrity. These notions are possible if we equate the ecosystem with the organism. But obviously these two things are quite different. In organisms, resources are distributed and members grow according to a genetically coded blueprint transmitted from generation to generation. No centralized control exists in ecosystems. Real systems, such as organisms, that constitute the ecosystem have different, often opposite agendas. The parts of an organism die or survive together. In contrast, many components of an ecosystem thrive at the expense of others. Each biotic part of an ecosystem, an organism, is much more complex than the ecosystem itself. The reverse is true for the organism. The theory of evolution, ecology, and much of biology are based on the fact that the organism is the unit of natural selection; ecosystems are not. If half of an ecosystem is converted into a parking lot, the remaining half may occasionally lose an animal species, but usually is able to continue its existence as before. In other words, ecosystems are divisible. Organisms are not. Organisms die predictably, but, barring a major volcanic eruption, it is all but impossible to kill an ecosystem. All of these reasons makes the discussion of ecosystem health and integrity meaningless. Dr. Fitzsimmons shows that the much publicized issue of ecosystem services is equally faulty. The chief flaw is the omission of the harmful side of these services. It seems obvious that, along with flows of materials and energy fueling our affluence, ecosystems "serve" us with diseases that kill or disable us, competitors that destroy the results of hard work by farmers and foresters, and calamities that devastate our homes and fields. It is true that biodiversity is the greatest treasure we possess; equally true, it is our greatest misfortune. Millions of people dying from dysentery, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and other infectious diseases pray to be saved from these ecosystem "services." All these issues are far from academic. They boil down to empowering the federal government to manage the land contrary not only to reason but to property rights as well. Dr. Fitzsimmons concludes his book by outlining a positive program of responsible environmental stewardship compatible with our liberty and freedom.

Ecosystems and Nature: Economics, Science and Policy (Environmental Analysis and Economic Policy)

Average customer rating:

Ecosystems and Nature: Economics, Science and Policy (Environmental Analysis and Economic Policy)

Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Genetics | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1858987938

Book Description

Ecosystems and Nature brings together the work of leading authorities in biodiversity research. It provides readers with a broad interdisciplinary perspective on the major issues in biodiversity, including economics, natural science, management and ethics.

Book Description

Concepts of ecological integrity have recently been proposed to facilitate enhanced protection of biological and ecological resources against the threat of human activities. The promotion of ecological integrity as a basis for public policy and decision making stems from scientists and others concerned about the threats of human activities to ecosystems and species, and from philosophers attempting to derive a more suitable ethic to guide the relationships between humans and the non-human environment. Although ecological integrity has been proposed as a norm for public policy and decision making, the concept is relatively new and therefore the underlying scientific and philosophical rationales have not been fully developed. This book offers a number of perspectives to stimulate and inform future discussion on the importance and consequences of ecological integrity for science, morality and public policy.
Audience: Environmental professionals, whether academic, governmental or industrial, or working in the private consultancy sector. Also suitable as an upper-level reference text.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books