Perspectives | Open Rivers Journal

Climate Land Leaders are learning that soil health is needed for healthy waters. Image courtesy of Sharing Our Roots.

PerspectivesMay 26, 2021

Creating Our Water Futures

This issue of Open Rivers invites us all to envision the kind of future we hope to have with water. It encourages us to see the possibilities. By imagining the relationships we want with water, imagining the water conditions we want to see in our future, we begin to see both the challenges and potentials in our present and the steps necessary to move us to these desired and desirable water conditions…

Darling River at Toorale National Park, New South Wales. Wikimedia: B 897 CC BY-SA 4.0.

PerspectivesDecember 7, 2020

Australia’s Legacy of Denying Water Rights to Aboriginal People

Water management in the Murray-Darling Basin has radically changed over the past 30 years. But none of the changes have addressed a glaring injustice: Aboriginal people’s share of water rights is minute, and in New South Wales it is diminishing.

Environmental Justice Indigenous Studies International Policy

The urban Mississippi River flowing by downtown Saint Paul. Image courtesy of Nattapol Pornsalnuwat.

PerspectivesMarch 4, 2020

The Urban Mississippi: Valuing Connections in a Changing Climate

By Emily Green, Bree Duever, and Amit Pradhananga Social scientists have long noted the value in humans connecting with their communities—through both social bonds…

Minnesota Policy Public Programs

Tipton Creek runs through the community that the author’s family calls home. This water winds through farmland, eventually connecting to the Iowa River, a tributary of the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of the author.

PerspectivesNovember 21, 2019

Cultivating and Stewarding a Community of “Water People”

Stewardship, then, is the dialogue we have with stakeholders about their lived experiences with the same things we are studying, developing shared language and concepts, and incorporating that knowledge into our future research and outreach activities. Over time, we all see ourselves as Water People.

Engagement Mississippi River Basin Public Programs

Sunrise at El Mirador, Guatemala. This was one of the largest cities in the Americas about 2000 years ago. Now it's located in one of the largest "virgin" forests in Central America. Image courtesy of the author.

PerspectivesAugust 1, 2019

An Archaeologist Writes against the Anthropocene

Much of what archaeologists do is study how humans adapt to the environment. After Gordon Willey’s (1953) groundbreaking investigation into the entire history of occupation of a small valley in Peru, understanding how humans lived in and modified their environment became commonplace. Indeed, the “New Archeology” that took the American academy by storm in the 1960s and strove to make the discipline more scientific made human-environment interactions and the understanding of human-environmental relations one of its central goals…

Anthropology Education International

View from atop Tsoodził (Mount Taylor, New Mexico) during filming for 'Ways of Knowing.' Image by Carmille Garcia, courtesy of Bombshelltoe.

PerspectivesApril 22, 2019

Extract: Locating Indigeneity in Immigrant Experiences

When the first major wave of Chinese people voyaged to the United States in the mid-19th Century, their collective journey was not yet a tale about belonging somewhere. It was about extracting resources—namely gold.

Engagement Environmental Justice International

Rue d' Isle de Jean Charles. Image courtesy of Jayeesha Dutta.

PerspectivesMarch 4, 2019

the river

something in the river haunted the island between the city and the border. she felt it, when she was on the waves in the little boat. she didn’t say anything, because what could be said, and to whom?

Arts Engagement Environmental Justice United States

Flooding in Kinston, North Carolina during Tropical Storm Florence, September 14, 2018. NC National Guard (https://flic.kr/p/2a1u8yj), (CC BY).

PerspectivesNovember 12, 2018

Rivers Flood Regularly During Hurricanes, But Get Less Attention Than Coastlines

Hurricane Florence, now a tropical depression, has dropped record-setting rainfall on parts of North Carolina. Many river gauges show waterways above flood stage. Flash and long-term flooding, as well as a risk of landslides, are expected to continue for days.

Geography Planning / Policy

The fall colors along the Mississippi River are framed nicely by the Ford bridge. This photograph was taken looking upstream of Lock and Dam 1 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. USACE photograph by Sam Mathiowetz.

PerspectivesJuly 25, 2018

An Endangered River: The Mississippi River Gorge

Almost 500 river miles below its source at Lake Itasca, the Mississippi River tumbles over its only waterfall in downtown Minneapolis. Dubbed the Falls of Saint Anthony by explorer Father Louis Hennepin, the falls were formed by glacial action more than 10,000 years ago. The magnificent waterfall was once over 200 feet high and located in downtown St. Paul. Over the years, the falls migrated upstream to their present location in downtown Minneapolis.

Civil Engineering Engagement Minnesota Planning / Policy Policy

The complex urban waterfront in New York city is emblematic of the balance between the challenges and solutions regarding our water infrastructures.

PerspectivesApril 27, 2018

One Water: A New Era in Water Management

Under the leadership of the US Water Alliance, a multi-sector coalition of leaders from more than 940 industry, government, and community organizations has joined forces to develop and advance practical solutions to the toughest water challenges facing our nation. As part of the “One Water for America” initiative, this diverse group collaborated to create the recently published One Water for America Policy Framework…

Civil Engineering Engagement Planning / Policy Policy United States

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