River Culture: Living with the River, Loving the River, Taking Care of the River

Abstract

An unbelievably small portion of the water available on planet Earth, just 0.00015 per cent of it, runs in rivers (Garcia-Moreno et al. 2014). And yet, this is the most important water source, not only for humans, but also for animals, plants and entire ecosystems on all continents. The natural flow regime of rivers, including periods of floods and low flows, has set the pace for cultural activities and biological evolution since the earliest days. But, in assuming that water is a resource that can be exploited without limits, humanity and global life support systems are running into an existential crisis, recently worsened by climate change. This article presents the book publication River Culture – Life as a Dance to the Rhythm of the Waters, which bears the name of a scientific concept that offers a way out of this crisis. Its innovative approach combines adaptive strategies developed by non-human biota with cultural practices resulting from human-nature interactions. The goal is to develop sustainable management options for river catchments (Wantzen 2022, 2023).