Book description
Filling a niche in the geomorphology teaching market, this
introductory book is built around a 12 week course in fluvial geomorphology.
'Reading the landscape' entails making sense of what a riverscape
looks like, how it works, how it has evolved over time, and how
alterations to one part of a catchment may have secondary consequences
elsewhere, over different timeframes. These place-based field analyses
are framed within their topographic, climatic and environmental
context. Issues and principles presented in the first part of this
book provide foundational understandings that underpin the approach to
reading the landscape that is presented in the second half of the
book. In reading the landscape, detective-style investigations and
interpretations are tied to theoretical and conceptual principles to
generate catchment-specific analyses of river character, behaviour and
evolution, including responses to human disturbance.
This book has been constructed as an introductory text on river
landscapes, providing a bridge and/or companion to
quantitatively-framed or modelled approaches to landscape analysis
that are addressed elsewhere. Key principles outlined in the book
emphasise the importance of complexity, contingency and emergence in
interpreting the character, behaviour and evolution of any given system.
The target audience is second and third year undergraduate students
in geomorphology, hydrology, earth science and environmental science,
as well as river practitioners who use geomorphic understandings to
guide scientific and/or management applications.
The primary focus of Kirstie and Gary's research and teaching entails
the use of geomorphic principles as a tool with which to develop
coherent scientific understandings of river systems, and the
application of these understandings in management practice. Kirstie
and Gary are co-developers of the River Styles® Framework and Short
Course that is widely used in river management, decision-making and training.
Additional resources for this book can be found at: www. wiley. com/go/fryirs/riversystems.
Kirstie Fryirs is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of
Environment and Geography at Macquarie University in Sydney,
Australia. She has worked extensively on river systems in Australia.
Her research focuses on geomorphic river evolution, post-European
disturbance responses, sediment budgets and connectivity, and
geoecology. Her research is used extensively in river management practice.
Gary Brierley is Chair of Physical Geography in the School of
Environment at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Building upon
his geomorphic research on river systems in western Canada, Australia
and New Zealand, his recent work has been undertaken in western China
and parts of South America. His research interests also include
concerns for environmental justice, transitional practices in river
science and management, and emerging approaches to environmental governance.
