Societal Drivers of European Water Governance: A Comparison of Urban River Restoration Practices in France and Germany
Open accessAbstract
The European water governance took a decisive turn with the formulation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), which demands the restoration of all water bodies that did not achieve sufficient ecological status. Urban rivers are particularly impaired by human activities and their restorations are motivated by multiple ecological and societal drivers, such as requirements of laws and legislation, and citizen needs for a better quality of life. In this study we investigated the relative influence of socio-political and socio-cultural drivers on urban river restorations by comparing projects of different policy contexts and cultural norms to cross-fertilize knowledge. A database of 75 projects in French and German major cities was compiled to apply (a) a comparative statistical analysis of main project features, i.e., motivation, goals, measures, morphological status, and project date; and (b) a qualitative textual analysis on project descriptions and titles. The results showed that despite a powerful European directive, urban river restoration projects still keep national specificities. The WFD drives with more intensity German, rather than French, urban river restoration. This study showed the limits of macro-level governance and the influence of microlevel governance driven by societal aspects such as nature perception and relationships between humans and rivers.
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Urban river restoration considers these deficits as the baseline for restoration activities, and most studies published so far have focused on urban streams in temperate zones.
“Urban river restoration (URR) considers these deficits as the baseline for restoration activities (see review in [18]), and most studies published so far have focused on urban streams in temperate zones.”
From Urban Stream and Wetland Restoration in the Global South—A DPSIR Analysis (2019) · cites this paper as [18]
The Isar River in Munich example shows that citizens owning houses next to the river engaged in the restoration project because they expected real-estate prices to increase once the Isar was restored, and they were right.
“The example of the Isar River in Munich [18] has shown that citizens owning houses next to the river were engaged in the river restoration project, among others, because they expected that real-estate prices for their houses would increase, once the Isar was restored (and they were right).”
From Urban Stream and Wetland Restoration in the Global South—A DPSIR Analysis (2019) · cites this paper as [18]
Targets of urban river restoration differ from those outside cities by integrating more societal goals and may be part of urban redevelopment.
“In general, the targets of urban river restoration differ from that outside cities by integrating more societal goals [16,18] and they may be part of urban redevelopment.”
From Urban Stream and Wetland Restoration in the Global South—A DPSIR Analysis (2019) · cites this paper as [18]
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References 44 · Cited by 48
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- Brookes, A.; Shields, F.D. River Channel Restoration: Guiding Principles for Sustainable Project; John Wiley and Sons: Chichester, UK, 1996.
- Clewell, A.; Aronson, J.; Winterhaler, K. The SER International Primer on Ecological Restoration; Society for Ecological Restoration Internation Science & Policy Working Group: Tucson, AZ, USA, 1993; pp. 132-133.
- EU. Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy. Off. J. L. 2000, 327, 1-73.
- Philipp, P., Fariborz, Z., Eds.; Routledge: Andorra la Vella, Andorra, 2016; pp. 145-162.
- Authors
- Zingraff-Hamed, A., Greulich, S., Wantzen, K., & Pauleit, S.
- Affiliations
- Strategic Landscape Planning and Management, Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, Emil-Ramann-Str. 6, 85354 Freising, Germany
- Université de Tours (FR)
- Technical University of Munich (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Pauleit, Stephan
- Venue
- Water
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2017-03-10
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 206
- ISSN
- 2073-4441 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2592556828
- Cited by
- 48
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 5
- FWCI
- 17.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Water (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- mediaTUM – the media and publications repository of the Technical University Munich (Technical University Munich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Technische Universität München
- Université François-Rabelais
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Water Governance and Infrastructure
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental and Sediment Control
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes
- Keywords
- urban river restoration, water governance, Water Framework Directive, perception of nature, human-river relationship, France, Germany, comparative policy analysis
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