The livelihoods of millions of people living along the world’s biggest river systems are under threat by a range of stressors caused by the daily economic, societal and political activity of humans – in addition to the long-term effects of climate change, researchers report.
The livelihoods of millions of people living along the world’s biggest river systems are under threat by a range of stressors caused by the daily economic, societal and political activity of humans – in addition to the long-term effects of climate change, researchers report.
A new paper by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign geology and geography professor Jim Best and University of Southampton professor Stephen Darby takes a big-picture approach to review the health and resiliency of the world’s large river systems, their deltas and their vulnerability to extreme events.
The article is published in the journal One Earth.
Rivers respond to changes in the environment through self-adjusting processes of erosion and sedimentation, the researchers said. When not stressed by extreme events like flooding or drought, these responses typically allow rivers to absorb change. However, data from many new studies now suggest that the world’s great waterways are becoming more vulnerable as the effects of human activity and climate change combine and compound.
Read more at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
Image: Mekong fisher -- one river facing a variety of stressors from human activity and climate change. (Credit: Photo courtesy Jim Best.)
