Summary

This webinar will explore how past-present-future connections of river imaginaries have influenced and are influencing river management in the context of climate change adaptation. Lotte de Jong will reflect in particular on the Border-Meuse river (The Netherlands) trajectory, where a large-scale infrastructure project is implemented as a nature-based solution to climate change. Future imaginaries and the power-knowledge relationships of these futures, initiated by gravel extraction, indicate how some futures materialize while others still struggle for recognition. While Carles Sanchis Ibor will look at the issue of rivers not only as flows of water, but also as flows of sediments. From this perspective, both flows are not constant, they are pulses of energy that occur sporadically and suddenly in intermittent and ephemeral rivers. Carles will think about river imaginaries, river management problems and their lack of social recognition.