River Cities Network

SOCIAL IMPACT AND RESEARCH PROJECT

River Cities Network (RCN) is a multi-sited working group under the Urban Knowledge Network Asia at IIAS, established to pursue action research on the river-city nexus in different parts of the world. The river-city nexus provides a lens through which to critically analyse relationships between human settlements and rivers over time, as well as a platform to engage in collective action to revitalise local river ecosystems and the communities adjacent to these rivers.

The outcomes of this initiative will be practical in nature—culminating in local urban revitalisation initiatives—as well as knowledge-based, leading to new insights about “transformational resilience” for theory and for university/school curricula. 

The river-city nexus is about “disruption”, and about recovery and resilience. “Disruption” refers to human interventions to exploit and alter the natural course of rivers—and vice versa—the impacts of rivers and river water on human, animal and plant life in urban areas. This cycle is frequently exacerbated by natural and climate change factors.

In RCN, project teams will analyse the river-city nexus in different parts of the world, in comparative perspective. A river will be the entry point in each case, with a focus on the interaction between this river and the communities that interact with this (stretch of) river. Each team will comprise local scholars, scientists, and activists, who have as their mission to engage with a broad range of stakeholders in seeking to revitalise the stretches of river that they select as case studies.  At the same time, each team will also engage with disruption issues in the other river city teams—thus helping to build a network. This network seeks to be truly global in nature, with learning and innovation between and within the global North and global South. 

RCN adopts a trans-disciplinary approach, bringing together knowledge of river ecosystems from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences around three main project components, which strengthen each other: river bios (histories and stories of the river), spatial analysis (layer mapping of the river and its environs) and transformation (activism to achieve revitalization of the river and adjacent communities, and ultimately transformational resilience, through networks of stakeholders).