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| Titel |
Rivers we can't bring ourselves to clean – historical insights into the pollution of the Moselle River (France), 1850-2000 |
| VerfasserIn |
R. J. Garcier |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1027-5606
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ; 11, no. 6 ; Nr. 11, no. 6 (2007-11-06), S.1731-1745 |
| Datensatznummer |
250009537
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/hess-11-1731-2007.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| As products of both natural and social systems, rivers are highly complex
historical objects. We show in this paper that historical analysis works on
two different levels: one level, which we call "structural", shows the
materiality of the riverine environment as the spatial-temporal product of
natural factors and human impacts (bed and course alterations, pollution,
etc.). On a second level –"semiotic" – we show that river systems are
also social constructs and the subjects of ancient and diverse management
practices. The quality of a river will be a function of the dialectical
interaction between both levels. Historical analysis can uncover the
inherited constraints that bear upon current management practices. To help
substantiate this analytical framework, we analyse the case of the Moselle
river in eastern France by using archival sources and statistical data.
Severely impaired by industrial discharges from iron, coal and salt
industries between the 1875s and the early 1980s, the waters of the Moselle
became the subject of a social consensus between stakeholders that prevented
the implementation of efficient pollution management policies until the
1990s. The example urges caution on the pervasiveness of participatory
approaches to river management: social consensus does not necessarily benefit
the environment. |
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