Browsing by Author "Brierley G"

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    Re-Imagining Wild Rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2022-08) Brierley G; Fuller I; Williams G; Hikuroa D; Tilley A; Gomes A; García JH
    If wilderness is dead, do wild rivers exist and if so, in what form and in whose construction? This reflective article reviews perspectives on rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand as wild or tamed entities. A historical overview of the socio-cultural and institutional relationships with rivers examines the meanings of rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand through multiple lenses. This includes indigenous Māori knowledge, command-and-control mentalities of a settler society that assert human authority over rivers, the emergence of the environmental movement and associated legislation with a sustainability focus (the Resource Management Act), and recent movement towards co-governance arrangements that incorporate the original intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (1840). It is contended that management practices have disconnected society from rivers, and vice versa, creating a sense of environmental loss (solastalgia), especially for Māori. Using rivers in the Greater Wellington Region as examples, prospects to accommodate wild river behaviour in Aotearoa New Zealand are explored. Recognising that re-wilding is no longer a feasible option in most instances, further attempts to tame rivers are also considered to be unrealistic, especially in light of climate change and accentuated flood risk. Reconnecting with indigenous knowledge offers prospects to re-imagine wild rivers in Aotearoa, living generatively with rivers as dynamic and emergent entities.
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    Tectonic and climatic controls on the regionally anomalous geomorphic character and behaviour of the Upper Mōtū River, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Elsevier B V, 2025-12-01) McCord J; Brierley G; Tunnicliffe J; Fuller I; Marden M; Mazengarb C
    Interpreting patterns of landforms is key to geomorphic understandings of landscapes. This study applies Stage One of the River Styles Framework to describe and explain contemporary river character, behaviour and patterns of river types in the Upper Mōtū Catchment on the East Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand. The Mōtū Catchment is regionally anomalous as it stores large volumes of sediment within a perched drainage basin at high elevations in the landscape. Landscape memory exerts a primary control upon contemporary process interactions in the Upper Mōtū Catchment. Geologic and climatic controls upon landscape configuration determine contemporary sediment sources and connectivity relationships, in turn influencing landscape responses to human disturbance and resulting patterns and rates of sediment flux. Tectonic uplift has shaped the relief and valley configuration while the lithological fabric created structural weakness that the river has exploited to form the current drainage pattern. Significant accommodation space has been created on valley floors in the upper catchment. Quaternary climate change instigated phases of valley floor aggradation and reworking that created a complex sequence of river terraces upstream of a knickpoint (Mōtū Falls) in the upper catchment. Terraces now act as confining margins for the laterally adjusting river. Contemporary headcut incision and channel expansion are the dominant contemporary sediment sources in this river system. In contrast to other river systems in the region where targeted revegetation of hillslopes is the key to process-based restoration programmes, bed control structures and a continuous riparian vegetation corridor are required to address sediment issues in the Upper Mōtū Catchment.