Rivers are the arteries of the landscape, integrating the impacts of change in atmospheric and terrestrial systems and delivering these to the coast. En route, geomorphological processes create dynamic and diverse habitats, both in-stream and in riparian and floodplain environments (Petts and Amoros, 1996a). The dynamics of channel change have led to conflict with human resource development with the outcome that many river and riparian environments have been significantly modified and damaged (Brookes and Shields, 1996; Sear et al., 2000). Responses to change in driving variables (runoff regime and sediment loads) have become dampened or prevented through river maintenance (Sear et al., 1995), while in other circumstances, land-use and land management changes, coupled to more efficient drainage networks, may have increased system sensitivity to environmental change (Newson and Leeks, 1987; Robinson, 1990). <...>
