Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196

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Geomorphology

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The social connectivity of urban rivers

G. Mathias Kondolf ⁎, Pedro J. Pinto
University of California Berkeley, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: By social connectivity we refer to the communication and movement of people, goods, ideas, and culture along
Received 24 November 2015 and across rivers, recognizing longitudinal, lateral, and vertical connectivity, much as has been described for
Received in revised form 23 August 2016 other rivers for hydrology and ecology. We focus on rivers as they pass through cities, and the relationships be-
Accepted 12 September 2016
tween these rivers and city dwellers. Historically, the most important longitudinal connectivity function of rivers
Available online 13 September 2016
was their role as major transport routes and the simplification of formerly complex, irregular banks and beds, into
Keywords:
straight, uniform shipping channels has resulted in a loss of lateral and vertical connectivity, notably the quotid-
Social connectivity ian uses such as fishing, washing clothes, water supply, swimming and other recreation.
Human interactions with rivers The scale of the river itself, and its scale in comparison to the scale of the city, largely determine the river's social
Navigation function and the degree to which it influences city form. River width affects the perception of ‘closeness’ of the
City-river relations other bank, ease of bridging the river, influence of the river on the city's street pattern, and type of waterfront
Urban river restoration uses that occur. Up to 15 m wide, people can converse, whereas across rivers ~50 to ~200 m wide, people are
not recognizable but still clearly visible, instilling the banks with a ‘lively’ atmosphere. At widths over ~200 m,
people blur, yet moving vehicles and trees branches shaking in wind may still provide some dynamic elements
to an otherwise static landscape composed of building facades. In exceptionally wide rivers, the city on the oppo-
site bank is little more than a skyline, which often becomes a signature and symbol of regional identity.
In contemplating how people use rivers, we can define a range of human activities in relation to height above the
water (i.e., instream to banktop), a vertical dimension of human connectivity with rivers. Many uses occur on the
top of the bank, such as quiet contemplation, walking, or cycling along a riverside trail, while others depend on
contact with the water itself, such as wading, diving, and canoeing (which presupposes adequate water quality).
Many of these relationships are illustrated by the challenge of reconnecting Cairo with the Nile.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction defined by Swyngedouw (2015, p. 19) as ‘the socially embedded tech-

Concepts of geomorphic, hydrologic, and ecological connectivity are
now well-established in the literature (e.g., Pringle, 2003; Kondolf et al.,
2006; May, 2006; Boulton, 2007). In these domains, connectivity refers
to ‘water-mediated transfer of matter, energy and/or organisms within
or between elements of the hydrologic cycle’ (Pringle, 2003, p. 2685)
and occurs in longitudinal, lateral, and vertical dimensions (Kondolf et
al., 2006). We adapt these concepts to define social connectivity, by
which we refer to the communication and movement of people,
goods, ideas, and culture along and across rivers, recognizing longitudi-
nal, lateral, and vertical connectivity, much as has been described for
rivers for hydrology and ecology. These social interactions are especially
intense and pervasive in urban reaches of rivers, which is the focus of
this paper.
The role of water in cities, especially water supply and political context
of its control, can be seen in the framework of the hydrosocial cycle,
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kondolf@berkeley.edu (G.M. Kondolf).
no-institutional organization of the material flows of water… The aim is
to tease out the multiple relations of power through which ‘water’ be-
comes enrolled, transformed, and distributed.’ The role of water supply,
its control and distribution, and the balances of power therein have
been explored in a growing literature (e.g., White, 1995; Swyngedouw,
2004; Gandy, 2014). While much of this literature has concerned water
supply in a specifically urban context, the emphasis has been less on the
role of the river itself than the flow of water through distribution and
wastewater systems.
The recently proposed notion of river culture recognizes the intersec-
tion of hydrologic, biological, and cultural uses and values of rivers as a
basis for preserving ecological and cultural diversity along rivers, much
of which is tied to seasonal pulses in flow (Wantzen et al., 2016). The
role of rivers themselves in history, culture, and social fabric of cities
has been subject of a number of recent works (e.g., Mauch and Zeller,
2008; Castonguay and Evenden, 2012), but none of these works frames
these social interactions in terms of connectivity to, along, around, and
across rivers, applying ideas from the environmental science literature
on connectivity.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2016.09.028
0169-555X/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196
The topic of social connectivity itself is far too broad for us to cover in
a short contribution, so in this paper we focus on applications of the
concept to urban rivers, borrowing a framework of longitudinal, lateral,
and vertical connectivity from the environmental sciences. After briefly
considering the role of longitudinal and lateral connectivity at a broader
scale on historical development of regions and cities, we focus on the in-
fluence of rivers on urban form, the experience of space in the city, and
opportunities to enhance connectivity of the city with the river. These
connectivity concepts can serve as an organizing framework for under-
standing river-city interactions, improve the relationship between cities
and their rivers, and to inform the increasingly widespread efforts to re-
store urban rivers.
2. Connectivity at regional scales: exploration, development, and
navigation
Historically, the longitudinal connectivity of rivers was most impor-
tant in their role as major transport routes between communities along
their course. In Europe, the Middle East, Eastern and South Asia, civiliza-
tions have depended for millennia on rivers as the ‘first highroads, mov-
ing belts of water’ (Mumford, 1961), along which trade flourished and
empires thrived.
In less explored regions, they were also fundamental in providing ac-
cess to otherwise inaccessible lands. While indigenous cultures used
these routes for commercial and cultural aims, it was colonial develop-
ment and expansion that motivated some of the best-known river-
borne explorations, such as Lewis and Clark's journey up the Missouri
River and down the Columbia, the celebrated explorations of the Nile
headwaters by Livingstone, Burton, Speke, and Stanley, and Auguste
Pavie's travels to the upper reaches of the Mekong (Larcher-Goscha,
2003; Botkin, 2004; Jeal, 2011). These river explorations were thus
closely tied to competition between regional powers. Many explora-
tions proceeded from the relative familiarity of the coast with its trading
ports, navigating rivers upstream into unknown lands. The often incred-
ible reports by explorers led to a sense of mystery, potential, and danger
of the unknown upstream, as captured by Conrad (1899) in his classic
novel, Heart of Darkness, set on the Congo River, also reflecting an era
of colonial expansion and exploitation.
In the early days of the North American republic, exploration and ex-
pansion plans (developed by the colonists along the Eastern Seaboard)
were defined by rivers. Despite George Washington's expectation that
increased river (and connecting canal) traffic would produce unity in
the young nation, the opposite occurred. The Ohio River became the
symbol of division and of a literal boundary, separating the slave-
owning south from the rest of the expanding nation (Seelye, 1991).
Thus, while the Ohio River played an important role in longitudinally
connecting Pittsburgh with New Orleans (and thereby the Eastern Sea-
board with the Gulf of Mexico), it was also a profound political bound-
ary, an interruption in lateral connectivity across its waters. African
Americans in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys were keenly aware of
the political differences longitudinally evoked by the expression ‘sold
down the river’, which referred to being sold to plantation owners in
the Mississippi Delta and thereby condemned to brutal conditions of
forced work and often early death (Sandlin, 2010). Because the Ohio-
Mississippi flowed from free states to slave states, one's fate could de-
pend on one's position longitudinally along the river, as evoked by
Mark Twain (1884) in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck and
his friend Jim, a slave who ran away before he was to be sold down
the river, float down the Mississippi, planning to get out in Cairo, Illinois
(a free state) but miss it in a dense fog, and are then carried deeper into
the territory of slave states.
People are often connected politically along rivers, not only longitu-
dinally but also laterally. The border between the U.S. and Mexico, made
up in large measure by a short reach of the Colorado River and a very
long (over 2000 km) reach of the Rio Grande, has arguably developed
a distinctive identity and can be characterized as a de facto third nation,
183
distinct from the large states to the north and south (Dear, 2013).
Where rivers traverse multiple political jurisdictions, they can provide
important trade links but are also commonly the focus for disputes
over navigation, water supply, and water quality. Upstream-down-
stream conflicts over the quantity and/or quality of waters delivered
by upstream to downstream states are common, with well-known ex-
amples including the Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers along the U.S.-
Mexican border (Garcia-Acevedo, 2001; Glenn et al., 2001; IBWC,
2013; Fig. 1) and large rivers of the Iberian peninsula that rise in Spain
and flow through Portugal (Correia and DaSilva, 1999; Vlachos and
Correia, 2000). Rivers have often played a role of interrupting lateral
connectivity as barriers to movement, such as in military campaigns,
where the challenge of moving an army across a large river can be for-
midable. While retreating from the disastrous Russian Campaign,
Napoleon's exhausted Grand Armée was forced to cross the half-frozen
river Berezina (Chandler, 1966). The results were such that, to this day,
the river's name is still used in the French language as a synonym for ca-
tastrophe or calamity.
The transition from exploration to commercial navigation was typi-
cally accompanied by increased size and sophistication of boats, from
canoes to steamships to large diesel-powered ships (on large rivers).
When at the start of the nineteenth century, Lewis and Clark set out to
explore the Louisiana Territory, recently acquired by the U.S. from
France, they relied primarily on canoes to ascend the Missouri River sys-
tem to the continental divide and thence descend the Pacific slope fol-
lowing Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers. Their reliance on
canoes followed the practice of Native Americans and the fur trappers
who preceded them (Botkin, 2004). Today the commercial navigation
on the Missouri and Columbia river systems travels on much larger
ships, through rivers deepened and channelized at public expense and
with profound environmental impacts.
The transformation of rivers with complex, irregular banks and beds
into straight, uniform shipping channels has greatly increased the prac-
ticality and profitability of river navigation and has also been one of the
greatest environmental impacts of development on rivers. Prior to its
canalization for shipping, navigation on the Mississippi River required
skills and a memory of details that is hard to imagine today, as described
by Twain (1883). The reality of navigating through natural river chan-
nels was reflected in a patent awarded to Abraham Lincoln in 1849,
‘Buoying vessels over shoals ’ (Fig. 2; Hindle, 2015). The future
president's design was to equip ships with buoyant chambers that
would lift them over shoals with their cargos. As noted by Hindle
(2015, p. 2), ‘Lincoln's invention was never commercialized, and today
it seems radical to imagine a landscape in which the fluvial geomorphol-
ogy of rivers remains intact while shipping vessels adapt to water levels
and other changing conditions.’
In many remote, undeveloped areas, the principal transportation and
communication routes remain small craft on rivers that have not been
modified for navigation (Fig. 3). On the San Juan River, the town of El
Castillo, Nicaragua, is not accessible by road, but depends on scheduled
passenger boats for its connections with Greytown (on the Caribbean
Sea) and San Carlos (upstream at the outlet of Lake Nicaragua; Fig. 4).
Historically, the San Juan River was an important route from the Atlantic
coast to the Pacific for migrants to California during the nineteenth cen-
tury gold rush, as it offered a shorter and safer route to California than
sailing around Cape Horn; and through the late nineteenth century the
river was viewed as a potential cross-isthmus route (alternative to the
Panama route) by virtue of the relatively easy navigation up the river
and thence across Lake Nicaragua (McCullough, 1977).
Many cities were established at the head of navigation, where falls or
rapids prevented further upstream travel. The existence of the falls also
provided water power for eighteenth and early nineteenth century in-
dustrialization, prior to adoption of the steam engine. Early industrial
cities along the eastern seaboard of the U.S. were located on the Fall
Line, the transition from bedrock Piedmont to coastal plain geology,
such as Passaic, Trenton, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Richmond.
184 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196
Fig. 1. Cartoon on the cover of the Report, ‘Colorado River: International Problem’ (Colorado River Commission of Arizona, 1938).
Indeed, Tvedt (2015) argued persuasively that the industrial revolution
started in Britain in large measure because of the nature of its water-
scape, which offered excellent water transport routes, adjacent to
sources of iron ore, coal, and other essential resources, and abundant
mill power. By virtue of bedrock geology and recent geomorphic history
(glaciation and subsequent marine transgression), British rivers are well
connected with the sea and include long reaches of drowned valleys and
estuaries. The upstream reaches benefit from year-round, mostly gentle
rainfall, which yields relatively steady flows with low sediment loads,
providing water for canals as well as navigable rivers. These favorable
characteristics were in contrast to more seasonal flow regimes, more
extreme floods and higher sediment loads in rivers of China, India,
and other potential competitors (Tvedt, 2015). Before the widespread
adoption of the steam engine in the mid-nineteenth century, water-
wheels were the driver of virtually all factories and thus key to the in-
dustrial revolution (Tvedt, 2015). The relatively even, year-round
precipitation of Britain resulted in a steady supply of water power,
again in contrast to the more variable hydrology of rivers in rival coun-
tries. The eighteenth-century landscapes of Britain and the eastern sea-
board of North America were covered with mills and their mill-dams,
many of which were later destroyed but which left accumulations of
sediment upstream (Walter and Merritts, 2008).
Today, recreational navigation has become increasingly popular and
the ability to navigate by kayak and canoe has become an important
issue, justifying the removal of many small dams that blocked recrea-
tional navigation and fish migration (Graf, 2003).
3. Connectivity at local scales: human uses of riverfronts
Balanced against this regional longitudinal connectivity, especially
evident in navigation along rivers, has been a lateral and vertical con-
nectivity manifest in the quotidian uses of local residents. This local ap-
propriation of the riverbanks for urban uses is especially evident in the
Global South, where some traditional practices remain very much alive:
fishing the river waters, using them to wash clothes, as a direct water
source, or for recreation. Often, swimming or strolling along the banks
and bars are among the few recreational opportunities available to
those of modest means. With improvements in water quality, some cit-
ies in Western Europe and North America are now rediscovering these
elements of direct interaction with formerly polluted rivers, often lost
during the Industrial Age.
Examples of such current uses include washing clothes in the
Tomebamba River in Cuenca, Ecuador, and relaxation and swimming
along the Isar River in Munich, Bavaria and the Curaray River in Ecuador
 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196 185

Fig. 2. Abraham Lincoln's 1849 patent, ‘ Buoying vessels over shoals’. U.S. Patent No. 6469. See Hindle (2015) for further description.

(Fig. 5). We refer to lateral and vertical connectivity because many ac-
tivities require direct access to the water, which can be inhibited by
steep banks. Along natural banks, access is usually possible either be-
cause the banks step down to the river, or informal access routes are
easily developed down the banks.
Indian rivers have long served such informal needs, as well as impor-
tant religious purposes. In Varanasi, the holiest of the sacred cities of
Hinduism, the historic city center hugs the banks of the Ganges. There,
successions of ghats double as riverfront squares and bathing platforms
(Fig. 6). The ritual ablutions of pilgrims, performed across the stepped
interface between land and water, instill these spaces with a cultural
significance comparable to that of a temple.
Uses such as this remain important in many cities, especially in the
developing world, intrinsically linked to questions of public health and
safety caused by poor water quality. For example, the Ganges receives
daily discharges of an estimated 200 M liters of untreated human sew-
age; and with natural flows increasingly diverted from the river (reduc-
ing dilution potential), the resulting fecal coliform counts reach 108 per
100 ml, and water-borne/enteric disease affects about 66% of riparian
residents (Hamner et al., 2006). All these uses involving human contact
with water stand to benefit from improvements to water quality. As
discussed further below, visual connectivity can be distinguished from
direct access and can be beneficial even when direct contact is best
discouraged.
Agricultural plots (hortas; Fig. 7) are common along riverbanks and
floodplain in cities across the world (e.g., Boissière, 2005; Miller et al.,
2005; Santos and Peña-Corvillon, 2014), providing local food produc-
tion for urban residents, many of whom are recent immigrants from
rural areas. Where these plots are on low surfaces that are frequently
flooded, the crops can be contaminated by polluted waters of the river.

Fig. 3. Passengers and cargo, including a new refrigerator, being transported across the Rio Aguarico in upper Amazon River basin of Ecuador. (photo by Kondolf, January 1990).
186 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196
Fig. 4. Passenger boat on the Rio San Juan, Nicaragua. (photo by Kondolf, May 2014).
Fishing continues to be popular in urban rivers. At one end of the
spectrum, in the Pacific Northwest of North America, many urban rivers
have high water quality and still support fishing for several anadromous
salmon and trout species. At the other extreme, fishers can be seen
pulling fish from even highly polluted waters of cities in developing
countries (Fig. 8), with health implications that go largely undocument-
ed. Subsistence fishers in the East River in New York, many immigrants
with poor English skills, were exposed to potentially high levels of con-
taminants in fish by virtue of their heavy reliance on these fish and the
bioaccumulation of contaminants; but this exposure had not been iden-
tified by conventional risk assessment approaches, which assumed that
consumption levels would be low (Corburn, 2002).
In an urban context, we can define the ease of crossing dependant
largely on physical scale. As discussed below, small rivers can be put
to underground culverts, while bridging wide rivers poses larger engi-
neering challenges. In less-developed contexts, ferries typically precede
bridges at crossings (as still reflected in many place names in the devel-
oped world). Ferries that also move longitudinally up and downstream
can provide an important urban transportation system, similar to a
metro line. The ferries of Bangkok plying the channels of the Chao
Phya delta are frequent and serve many stops on both banks, providing
transport that is practical and delightful (Fig. 9; Van Beek, 1995). Here,
the aesthetic qualities of the waterways and their value as transport cor-
ridors are in stark contrast with their heavy polluted waters. Virtually all
cities in the Global South (and many in developed countries) still face
major challenges related to sanitation and uneven access to rivers.
Where rivers flowing through cities have been impounded, the
flowing river is transformed into a slackwater lake. In some cases, this
has resulted in increased water pollution, as contaminants are retained,
and anoxia may result. Ironically, in regions with highly seasonal flow
regimes, where the river bed might dry in the dry season, some cities
have sought to transform their seasonal rivers into perennial ones by
damming them. The city of Zaragosa, Spain, dammed the Ebro to create
a shallow lake that extended upstream, allowing for navigation in small
boats from the city center for several hundred meters upstream to the
grounds of the 2008 World's Fair, belying the Ebro's natural seasonal
flow. After seeing the San Antonio river walk (Texas) in the 1960s, the
San Jose City Council sought to create a similar feature on the Guadalupe
River, California USA. However, the San Antonio River is spring-fed and
perennial year-round, while the Guadalupe River is highly seasonal, so a
series of dams was proposed to pond water year-round (Kondolf et al.,
2013). Ultimately, the damming of the river was averted because of its
impact on migrating fish.
4. Longitudinal vs. lateral connectivity: navigation and flood control
vs. other uses
The simplification of channel form undertaken to improve naviga-
tion and control floods has commonly reduced lateral connectivity.
Through the eighteenth century, the banks of the Seine in Paris were
heavily used by merchants and industries, most located there for the
convenience of deliveries and exposure to customers; and some
depended directly on the river waters, such as mills, laundry boats,
tripe butchers (who washed their product in the river), and dyers
(who drew water from and discharged waste into the river;
Backouche, 2008). By 1750, the city's increasing population and the con-
comitant demands on the river front had resulted in conflicts between
the local uses and navigational interests (ships increased in size), such
that the state intervened to improve efficiency of navigation, gradually
banning commerce from the river and dedicating it to navigation as a
national river. The formerly complex interface between land and
water, made up of multiple buildings built over river edges and on brid-
ges, was replaced with ‘homogeneous water fronts designed to improve
traffic and prevent damage from periodic, devastating floods’, such that
‘the Seine became increasingly alienated from the economic and social
life of Paris ’ (Backouche, 2008, p. 30). Thus, we can see in the case of
the Seine in Paris, the formerly rich lateral connectivity of the river
with the city was sacrificed to improve longitudinal connectivity for
navigation. Such was the fate of many other urban rivers in Europe
and elsewhere (Mann, 1973). This sort of intertwining among power,
commerce/capital flows, and rivers is the subject of much recent litera-
ture, especially in the field of social geography (e.g., Gandy, 2014;
Swyngedouw, 2015). Most noticeably, a conflict often exists between
the interests of local constituents and those of more centralized national
or regional powers.
Today the Seine in Paris is accessible visually but not physically, as its
high, vertical masonry walls effectively cut people off from the water.
Since 2001, the Paris-Plages have drawn Parisians to the quais along
the Seine in summer months by placing beach sand on quais about 3–
4 m above the river level. The initiative, while very successful in gener-
ating an attractive public space, is yet to fully restore connectivity be-
tween the city and its river. People can sunbathe and participate in a
 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196
Fig. 5. Examples of human uses of urban rivers. (A) Washing clothes in the Tomebamaba
River, Cuenca, Ecuador (photo by Anna Serra Llobet, April 2014). (B) Recreation along
restored gravel bars on the Isar River, in Munich, Bavaria (photo by Kondolf, July 2012).
(C) Children jumping and diving from the bank into the Rio Curaray, Ecuador. (photo by
Kondolf, January 1990).
beach scene on the sand but have no direct access to river waters (De La
Pradelle and Lallement, 2004; Stevens and Ambler, 2010). In a reflection
of changing priorities of connectivity, the original Paris-Plage was
established on the Pompidou Expressway, shut down for one month
each summer starting 2001 by mayor Bertrand Delanoe, whose elector-
al platform emphasized reduced automobile use and increased livability
187
of the city for residents (Stevens and Ambler, 2010). Thus, in the twen-
ty-first century, the longitudinal connectivity of a major transportation
route located along the river was sacrificed to create lateral connectivity
between the city and the river in a somewhat ironic, but welcome, re-
versal of the recent historic trend. Perhaps continued improvement of
water quality might encourage the establishment of yet more perma-
nent and direct access points to the river.
Through most of the twentieth century, the Mississippi River could
not be seen from New Orleans (aside from bridges), being cut off from
the city by massive levees, railroad tracks, and navigation infrastructure.
It was only in 1972 that the old docks between the French Quarter and
river were demolished and a riverside park was built, beginning a pro-
cess of opening up the waterfront that continued with a world's fair in
1984 and the subsequent development of the Riverwalk commercial
complex, resulting in public access to about 2 km of the riverfront
along the French Quarter extending upstream (Lewis, 2003).
5. Lateral connectivity and influence on city form: questions of scale
The scale of the river itself, and its scale in comparison to the scale of
the city, strongly influence the river's social role within the city and the
degree to which it influences city form. We use the term scale purely
from a spatial perspective, without invoking scales of governance, a
topic that has been explored by a number of scholars (e.g., Norman et
al., 2012, 2015). While we recognize that a river's social role evolves
over time in response to multiple influences, such as changes in liveli-
hood practices, political decisions, and economic trends, we focus on
the experience of the river in the urban context in relation to its physical
dimensions. We propose relations between river width and the percep-
tion of closeness of the other bank, the ease of bridging the river, the in-
fluence of the river on the city's street pattern, and the type of
waterfront uses that occur (Fig. 10).
In narrow streams, the proximity of the opposite bank may be such
that people could still communicate across the river. In dense urban set-
tings, this sense of intimacy often produces vibrant public spaces strad-
dling both banks, such as San Antonio's Riverwalk or the banks of the
Thiou in Annecy, France (Fig. 11). On the downside, small streams
have often been severely encroached upon or culverted. Sometimes re-
duced to narrow canals between buildings, the lack of space for river-
bank intervention may render it impossible to reestablish continuous
walking paths along these streams; and flood management issues may
severely limit the range of solutions available, limiting the possibility
of direct lateral access or the restoration of riparian corridors.
As width increases, the type of social interaction between people on
opposite banks shifts: while up to 15 m one may (depending on eye-
sight) still be able to recognize someone walking on the other side
(Loftus and Harley, 2005), whistle to catch their attention or wave at
them; as the rivers get wider, the range of social interaction becomes
more limited. In rivers ~50 to ~200 m wide, people are still clearly vis-
ible, but not recognizable. Yet, being able to watch people moving
about instills the banks with a lively atmosphere. It is this sort of inter-
action that makes the quays of the Seine (in Paris) or the banks of the
Arno (in Florence) so vibrant. Bridging these rivers, while not necessar-
ily cheap, is manageable and often promoted by local governments.
At greater distances, from about 200 m, people blur, but buses or
trucks moving or trees branches shaking in wind may still provide
some dynamic elements to an otherwise static landscape composed of
building facades. Landscaping of wide embankments, with unifying vi-
sual elements such as tree rows or controlled building heights, often
contributed to enhance the visual identity of the riverscape, such as
along the Thames in London or the Danube in Budapest. As ever, these
linear structures along the rivers required further encroachment of the
river's natural banks (Mann 1973). These embankments, being typically
wider than the narrow banks along smaller rivers, may allow some
room for more elaborate interventions, such as reestablishing narrow
188 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196

Fig. 6. Ghats along the banks of the Ganges River, Varanasi, India, which support the ritual ablutions of religious pilgrims. (photo by Rohit Tak, March 2015, used by permission).

floodplains, as was the case along the Isar, in Munich, where the lower
terrace doubles as parkland when the river is not at flood stage (Fig. 5B).
In exceptionally wide rivers, such as the Mississippi, or in wide estu-
aries, such as San Francisco Bay or the Tagus Estuary, the city on the op-
posite bank is little more than a skyline, seen from a few kilometers
away. That skyline, though, will often become a signature, a symbol of
regional identity (Kostof, 1991, p. 296), with shoreline walks and belve-
deres from which to enjoy the broad views. The technology for estab-
lishing bridge or tunnel connections across such wide rivers was only
developed from the late nineteenth century and, to this day, creating
new crossings is still a major endeavor, often involving national or fed-
eral governments.
Many of these cities on wider, lowland rivers have developed impor-
tant port areas and linear infrastructure along the cheapest of lands: the
reclaimed river bank. Not surprisingly, many of the brownfields –
resulting from derelict riverside industries, the replacement of linear
infrastructure, or the relocation of container terminals – often adjoin
the rivers and estuaries (Brown, 2009). As these spaces become avail-
able for redevelopment, they open up valuable and centrally located,
riverfront real estate, as well as the opportunity to create new public
open spaces and restore natural riverside habitat.
6. Vertical connectivity
In contemplating the lateral connectivity of people and rivers, we
can define a range of human activities in relation to height above the
water (i.e., instream to banktop), a vertical dimension of human con-
nectivity with rivers (Fig. 12). Many uses occur on the top of the bank,
such as quiet contemplation, walking, or cycling along a riverside trail;
while others depend on contact with the water itself, such as wading,
diving, and canoeing (Fig. 13). In addition to this vertical dimension,
we can identify another axis, the degree of activity (from passive to

Fig. 7. Urban farming in Ribeira da Barcarena, Portugal. (photo by Pinto, May 2009).
 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196 189

Fig. 8. Artisinal fishing on a tributary to the Yongjiang River, Ningbo, China. (photo by Kondolf, July 1997).

active), representing a range of uses, within the channel from wading to
jumping and diving, and on the bank from quiet contemplation to cy-
cling or fishing.
Some of these uses depend on prior programming, such as paved bi-
cycle trails or the standing waves designed into urban river parks, but
most can be classified as spontaneous uses, i.e., uses that are made op-
portunistically by children and adults taking advantage of natural fea-
tures of the river and its banks, as well as human artifacts such as
culverts large enough to crawl inside (Kondolf and Yang, 2008). These
spontaneous uses include more intuitive and unplanned activities that
involve direct and active interaction with the landscape, such as skip-
ping rocks, catching frogs, collecting nuts, and swimming. For example,
where deep pools occur next to large trees or other features from which
children can jump, diving is common. All these in-stream uses are espe-
cially dependent on good water quality. Quiet contemplation, picnics,
and cycling can all be enjoyed along a polluted river (provided the
river does not smell bad or look disgusting), but contact with the
water is a good idea only when the quality is good. In the developing
world, visual access to the river and developing opportunities for recre-
ation and leisure on the banks can provide much-needed open space
and at the same time raise awareness of the river and build a constitu-
ency for its cleanup, which could eventually permit in-stream uses. At
the same time, productive uses of the river and its banks, such as fishing
or urban farming, benefit greatly from improved water quality.

Fig. 9. Ferry boats on the Chao Phya River provide a well-used transportation system that supplements the network of metro trains, streets, and highways in Bangkok. (photo by Kondolf,
March 2011).
190 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196

Fig. 10. Relations between river width and four phenomena: the perception of ‘closeness’ of the other bank, the ease of bridging the river, the influence of river course on street grid, and the
kinds of waterfront uses possible.

Many urban rivers are fringed by high, vertical masonry walls,
preventing human access to the water. To restore vertical connectivity
from bank top to the water, in 2011 the Canton of Geneva funded a se-
ries of wooden platforms built into the stone walls that allowed human
access to the waters of the Rhone (Fig. 14). These have proved extreme-
ly successful. Despite the chilly temperature of the water, swimming is
popular, as is sunbathing on the wooden decks. The swimming plat-
forms are part of an overall effort to reconnect residents with the river.
7. Enhancing connectivity
Certain urban activities require a combination of lateral, vertical, and
longitudinal connectivity (Fig. 15). One single activity, such as running
along the riverbank, can require all three levels of connectivity to be
present, in the street layout and in the design of the waterfront public
spaces: from one's apartment onto the embankment (lateral connectiv-
ity), down to the shoreline park (vertical connectivity), and along it

Fig. 11. The narrow banks of the Thiou, in Annecy, France. (photo by Pinto, 2011).
 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196
Fig. 12. Range of recreational uses of urban streams, plotted with respect to immersion in or height above the water (y-axis) and degree of activity (x-axis). (diagram by Kondolf, from
Kondolf and Yang, 2008).
(longitudinal connectivity). Allowing people to dive, bathe, or swim in
the river can be considered another instance of vertical connectivity, al-
beit one which is often absent because of public health concerns. With
improving water quality and restored access to the river a few cities
Fig. 13. Surfing a standing wave in Wingfield Whitewater Park, Truckee River, Reno,
Nevada (photo by Podolak, August 2009, from Kondolf and Podolak, 2014).
191
(such as Munich, Bern, and Geneva) are already promoting this most
important reconnection with their rivers.
Urban spaces can be improved so as to promote all levels of connec-
tivity. Fully integrating the circulation networks, and especially those
made available to pedestrians or cyclists, so as to increase lateral con-
nectivity between the urban fabric and the waterfront, is often the
starting point in reestablishing city-river connectivity. This often entails
removing linear barriers along the waterfront, such as highways or rail-
roads or at least introducing frequent and safe crossing points. The lay-
out of the first line of buildings should allow free movement across to
the waterfront, and this should be enforced through planning ordi-
nances, for new development, and encouraged in all redevelopment
on, or near, the banks.
Ensuring good lateral connectivity between banks, by establishing
river transport or bridges accessible to pedestrians and bicyclists, is fun-
damental in promoting the integration of both banks of the river. The
center of Paris is, quite literally, in the middle of the Seine. Left Bank,
Right Bank, and the islands, are all fully integrated and connected by
several bridges. In their absence, the vibrancy that characterizes the
quais of Paris would be severely compromised. Finally, all access points
should be connected by longitudinal pathways, sidewalks, or (ideally)
riverside parks.
Embankments themselves should include frequent points where
vertical connectivity between the upper street level and the river or
its lower terraces may be assured. Where more natural solutions are
192 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196
Fig. 14. Swimming platforms built along the vertical masonry walls of the Rhone in Geneva, designed by Julien Descombes of ADR Architectes, Geneva. (photo by Kondolf, June 2011).
at odds with the needs of flood control management, stepped banks or
ramps are a compromise that allows for free movement down to the
river while maintaining flood protection. Where lateral space is avail-
able, vertical and lateral connectivity can ideally be addressed through
the restoration of more natural bank profiles, which could include ripar-
ian corridors and floodplain areas that can be inundated to accommo-
date flood waters. Multilevel riverside parks, which may include
reconstructed alluvial terraces at a lower level, perfectly match the
need to preserve the floodplain from permanent uses while providing
valuable public spaces by the river, open to use whenever the river is
not at its flood stage. Where water quality is so poor that direct contact
should be avoided, visual access can still be promoted, as this still pro-
vides some open-space benefits and may help to build public support
for water quality improvement.
8. Case study: Connecting Cairo to the Nile
Through its long history, Egypt has been centered around the Nile,
dependent upon the river for navigation and communication, and
upon the river's periodic floods to bring water and fertile silts to its
floodplain agriculture (Wohl, 2011). Cairo's location on the Nile just
Fig. 15. Diagram showing the different types of connectivity to, along, and across an urban
stretch of river. Lateral connectivity is shown through blue arrows, vertical connectivity in
orange, and longitudinal connectivity in red. (adapted from Piégay and Schumm, 2003).
upstream of the bifurcations of the delta reflects the strategic impor-
tance of this site, with the river serving as the line of communication
with upper Egypt and the Delta. Until recently, Egypt accounted for
nearly all the consumptive use of water and used most of the flow be-
fore it could reach the Mediterranean. However, with Ethiopia's initia-
tion of construction of large dams on the upper Blue Nile, the flow
volumes and patterns reaching Egypt are likely to be altered significant-
ly (Block and Strzepek, 2010; Kantoush, 2014).
Historically, much of the city's life occurred along the river banks, in-
cluding activities such as washing, fishing, and transportation by felluca.
The banks were lively and accessible by all. However, by the end of the
twentieth century, the banks were largely cutoff from free public access
by a series of private clubs, restaurants, nurseries, and police and mili-
tary stations, as well as heavily used roads located along the river
banks (Gabr, 2004). This should not be dissociated from a larger debate
on the unequal access to the riverfront and how often these new uses
promote exclusivity and social segregation rather than promoting inte-
gration and leisure opportunities for all citizens. While the river banks
are still prime locations of high-rise hotels and apartments, visual access
to the river for the average Cairene is lacking, and physical access to the
river bank itself is limited to a relatively few, heavily used, public areas
(Fig. 16). Cairo is a dense city, with little open space available for its pop-
ulation of over 18 million and growing (Fahmi and Sutton, 2008). The
need for public open space, and the compelling attraction of the wide
river, is illustrated by a common sight on Cairo's busy bridges, where
families set up chairs so they can picnic on the sidewalks, overlooking
the river and enjoying the open space, seemingly oblivious to the
noise and fumes of the traffic streaming nearby (Kondolf et al., 2011).
In this context, Cairo has remarkable opportunities to reconnect its peo-
ple with the river that was historically its heart.
The principal issue with the social connectivity of the Nile in Cairo is
the lack of lateral connectivity with surrounding communities, because
the banks themselves are occupied by uses that preclude public access
and because nearby neighborhoods are mostly cut off from the river
by busy roads, surface metro tracks, and other barriers. For example,
there is no direct and easy access connecting the river bank and Old
Cairo (with the historically, culturally, and religiously important Coptic
Cairo and Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque). First, the way is blocked by the
walled-in metro tracks and the busy highway along the Corniche,
 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196 193

Fig. 16. View of the right bank of the Nile in the central business district (looking upstream). The pressure to access the river is so great that people descend a steep, masonry bank to reach
the water, and crowd the bank top. High-rise hotels and apartment buildings overlook the river, taking advantage of the spectacular views. (photo by Kondolf, March 2007).

which lack adequate pedestrian overcrossings. In addition to these bar-
riers, no streets directly link Old Cairo to the river, and the absence of vi-
sual connection to the river fails to provide cues to lead the pedestrian
there (Fig. 17). In a detailed study of 14 km of the right bank of the
Nile from Maadi (a wealthy suburb favored by embassies and interna-
tional organizations) downstream to Tahrir Square in the city's center,
Kondolf et al. (2011) documented lack of lateral connectivity with adja-
cent neighborhoods along most of the reach, but identified many oppor-
tunities for interventions that could significantly improve this
connectivity.
The Nile in Cairo also suffers from a lack of longitudinal connectivity.
The arterial route along the Corniche, adjacent to the river bank, is

Fig. 17. Map of historic landmarks in Old Cairo in relation to the Nile. Old Cairo is cut off from pedestrian access to the river by the metro line and the arterial road along the Corniche (see
legend for key). (redrawn from Kondolf et al., 2011).
194 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196
notoriously congested with traffic, resulting in highly polluted air for
pedestrians and motorists. For example, from Maadi to the center, no
safe, healthy route by which to walk or bicycle is available. However,
most of the river bank below the Corniche is flanked by a low terrace,
which was formerly under water during the flood season. With the vir-
tual elimination of floods since construction of the Aswan High Dam in
1970 (Wohl, 2011), this surface (typically about 2 m above the river
level) is no longer seasonally inundated and thus provides a logical loca-
tion for a continuous trail along the river, which could serve pedestrians
and bicyclists (Fig. 18). In addition to the inherent attractiveness of
being adjacent to the river, the trail would offer a healthy alternative
route to the center. Simply by virtue of being below the level of the Cor-
niche, the traffic noise is much less and atmospheric particulate matter
levels are about one-third those measured on the sidewalk adjacent to
the Corniche (Kondolf et al., 2011). If the space between the road and
the riverbank trail were systematically planted with trees, the differ-
ence in conditions would be even greater. Detailed analysis of the 14-
km river reach between Maadi and the center shows that such a trail
can be located along the river bank, although some existing uses (such
as police stations) would need to be routed around until they were
eventually moved, which might take some years, depending on the
level of political support for the trail (Fig. 19) (Kondolf et al., 2011).
Other current uses, such as restaurants and nurseries, could more quick-
ly adapt to having the trail pass by their river edge.
Another opportunity to improve connectivity lies in a potentially ex-
panded and improved ferry system. Unlike Bangkok, whose frequent
ferries on the Chao Phya River provide critically important longitudinal
and lateral connections for commuters and other passengers, with
many convenient ferry stops, the existing Nile ferry in Cairo has only a
very limited number of stops and limited number of aging boats,
which are usually crowded as a consequence. If the normal ferry service
were expanded, it could supplement the overtaxed existing transport
system (the metro and roads) (Fig. 19). In addition, deluxe ferries
could appeal to more wealthy clients, to move from locations such as
Maadi to destinations in the center while avoiding the city's notorious
traffic jams. Bringing elites onto the water for transportation might
raise awareness of the river's condition and build political support for
river improvements. Such a system of ferries could increase not only
the longitudinal connectivity but also the lateral connectivity, by mak-
ing it easier to cross the river at sites other than existing bridges.
Fig. 18. View of low terrace along the right bank of the Nile near Maadi (looking downstream). This terrace is currently occupied by nurseries and low-value buildings (as shown here), as
well as private clubs, restaurants, and police and military stations. (photo by Kondolf, January 2011).
Despite recognition of the lack of connectivity to the Nile and broad
support for the types of interventions described by Kondolf et al. (2011),
little movement toward implementation has occurred because of recent
political changes. Nonetheless, the potential benefits of reconnecting
the Nile would by any measure be substantial and we hope can be im-
plemented in the future.
9. Conclusion
The concept of connectivity to, or along, rivers is already widely ap-
plied from hydrologic and ecological perspectives. It is likewise a valu-
able concept when applied to social aspects of city-river relationships.
The key processes and controls that shape and disrupt the social con-
nectivity of rivers can be summarized in terms of geographic setting, po-
litical/institutional controls, and the resulting anthropic physical
modifications. Geographic setting includes the river's inherent natural
navigability, occurrence of falls, access to the sea, height of banks and
adjacent topography, position of the river as central or marginal to the
city, and seasonal and interannual variability of flow. Political and insti-
tutional controls include top-down policies to prioritize certain uses,
such as navigation, flood control, upstream diversions for consumptive
uses, or enforcement of public or private access to the river's banks. An-
thropic modifications include embankments and flood walls to prevent
flooding, hardened and/or filled banks for industrial uses or transporta-
tion infrastructure (both of which can severely limit lateral connectivity
– including visual – to the river), displacement of direct uses, simplifica-
tion and/or deepening of the channel for navigation or flood control,
and impoundments that transform flowing rivers into slackwater fea-
tures. While several processes in past centuries have contributed to-
ward a progressive reduction of the level of connectivity between
cities and the rivers that flow through them, recent progress (especially
in the developed world) is now opening up the opportunity to read-
dress the city-river relationship and to improve lateral and longitudinal
connectivity along urban river corridors.
Longitudinal connectivity was vitally important when the river
served as a major transport route. With changes to land use in the catch-
ment as well as encroachment of natural floodplains, ensuring naviga-
tion and expanding the capacity of rivers to serve as conduits for
floods often came at the sacrifice of the two other levels of social con-
nectivity, as flood protection structures and canalization often meant
 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196 195

Fig. 19. Existing and proposed transportation network along the Nile River corridor. Existing trail segments and ferry stops (left) and plan for continuous trail and expanded ferry service
(right) along the right bank of the Nile along a 14-km reach from Maadi downstream to the central business district of Cairo. (redrawn from Kondolf et al., 2011).

sacrificing direct access to the river. As a deeper understanding of the
processes contributing to flooding, and less intrusive solutions to main-
tain navigability and flood management become available, the opportu-
nity now presents itself to restore the lateral and vertical dimensions of
city-river connectivity. Frequently, these connections were severely im-
paired not only by changes to the morphology of the river banks but also
by decaying water quality. Recent improvements in sanitation, especial-
ly in developed countries, now encourage more direct access to the
river. In fact, new forms of local longitudinal connectivity are regaining
importance, such as the ability to continuously walk along river banks
by introducing footpaths along the river's banks and the ability to pass
continuously in canoe or kayak facilitated by removal or retrofitting of
outdated dams and other such obstacles to navigation. Nowadays,
many riverfront interventions aim to recover some of those lost connec-
tions, by recreating riverside pathways or reestablishing fluvial public
transit.
Access to the banks was severely compromised through the introduc-
tion of a variety of man-made barriers between the city and its river. Long
buildings, such as warehouses or industrial plants, often encroached upon
the river's banks. In wider rivers, landfilling the banks for the introduction
of linear infrastructure, such as railroads, highways, or port infrastructure,
was a common practice until recently, providing limited public access
points to the river. With the relocation of industries and removal of linear
infrastructure along rivers, reestablishing the lost lateral connectivity be-
tween the city and the river has become a major staple of riverfront re-
generation projects. Many recent projects also propose the creation of
new river crossings, which constitute a further form of restoring lateral
connectivity, in this case, across the river.
In designing new waterfront public spaces, often the chance arises to
address one further dimension of city-river connectivity. Vertical con-
nectivity, from the upper street level; onto embankments, terraces;
and eventually down to the water level and into the water itself, has
been practically lost from western cities. When constraints such as the
available bank width, flood management issues, or water quality are
not an obstacle, reestablishing this most elusive connection across the
different levels becomes possible.
Historical uses of the urban riverfront often required a combination
of all levels of connectivity. Recreational boating, bathing, wading, and
swimming require good access to the river's banks, and the ability to
move down to the water, and pre-suppose good water quality adequate
to permit physical contact.
Acknowledgements
The manuscript was immeasurably improved thanks to comments
from anonymous reviewers and special issue editors Wohl and
Rathburn. We have also benefited from the insights of many colleagues
engaged in this topic over the years, including Walter Binder, Georges
and Julien Descombes, Chia-Ning Yang, Kristen Podolak, Amir Gohar,
Jorge Batista e Silva, Paula Mota Santos, Graca Saraiva, and Steve Van
Beek. Krishna Balakrishnan prepared Figs. 17 and 19. Manuscript prep-
aration was supported by the Beatrix Farrand Fund of the Department of
196 G.M. Kondolf, P.J. Pinto / Geomorphology 277 (2017) 182–196

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, and by the Insti- Kondolf, G.M., Boulton, A., O'Daniel, S., Poole, G., Rahel, F., Stanley, E., Wohl, E., Bang, A.,
Carlstrom, J., Cristoni, C., Huber, H., Koljonen, S., Louhi, P., Nakamura, K., 2006. Pro-
tute of International Studies, both at the University of California, cess-based ecological river restoration: visualising three-dimensional connectivity
Berkeley. and dynamic vectors to recover lost linkages. Ecol. Soc. 11 (2).
Kondolf, G.M., et al., 2011. Connecting Cairo to the Nile: renewing life and heritage on the
river. Institute of Urban and Regional Development Working Paper No. 2011-007.
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