ABSTRACT
We now use two chapters to explore the physical science basis for our confidence that a holistic concept of river basins (or ‘catchment consciousness’) is a fit basis for management.
In this chapter the aim is to set down those patterns and processes which lead us to the view of the drainage basin as a systematic physical whole, a basis for the ecosystem approach. It is the key concept in the wider education of politicians, planners and the public that river systems are an interconnected transport system, albeit often working invisibly (as in the transfer of dissolved salts) or over extremely long timescales (as in the evolution of floodplains): the science of geomorphology is central. In turn, this system acts as an interconnected network of habitats for the biota of the basin, whose diversity and resilience provide goods and services to human societies within and outside its boundaries. For newcomers to the ecosystem concept for rivers, Brian Moss provides an extremely readable example (Moss, 2002 and Box 2.1) showing how the headwaters of streams draining to the Pacific are biologically and chemically linked to that ocean in a functional web.
