Introduction

The riverscape and the river share the sheet of water which covers the land: in whole or part, permanently or intermittently. The river is a stream of water flowing along a bed in the earth, to the sea (lake or river). The riverscape is that part of landscape which has (or had) a watercourse as its focus. Rain falls upon the riverscape. Some evaporates, some sinks below, gradually emerging as springs or flushes, and (usually) most runs down the slope, gradually collecting into the rivers and finally the seas. The hydrological cycle is finished by the evaporation of sea (and fresh) water into the air, and its precipitation back on the earth's surface.

Seeing that life on earth is based on water, and life on land, on fresh water, the river is essential to land life, as well as river life. The riverscape and, to a considerable extent all that grows on it or is put on it, depends on the river, since the river (or the ice-river of a precursor glacier) first formed the riverscape. The two are interdependent, both are modified by human impact (even in Antarctica, e.g. air and sea pollution, and climate change), and both are natural capital, hence natural resources for people.