The unnatural history of the river trent: 50 years of ecological recovery

Langford, Terry, Worthington, Tom, Shaw, Peter, Kemp, Paul, Woolgar, Chris, Ferguson, Alastair, Harding, Philip and Ottewell, David (2012) The unnatural history of the river trent: 50 years of ecological recovery. In, River Conservation and Management. John Wiley & Sons, pp. 261-272. (doi:10.1002/9781119961819.ch21).

Abstract

During the past 50 years the ecological recovery of several grossly polluted rivers in the developed world has been encouraging. The River Trent in England is a good example. Once one of the most polluted rivers in the UK, it has shown marked water quality improvements which have been well documented by chemical and biological monitoring results spanning more than six decades. This chapter describes the main changes at four selected sites along the river to illustrate the major events and trends that were influential for both the pollution and subsequent improvement. It marks the start of a study series on the River Trent to investigate the causes and processes of ecological recovery in a complex river system. The aim is to establish the extent to which technical, legal, sociological and economic factors have contributed to the original pollution and subsequent recovery. This account also introduces the concept of ecological socio-economics, which can be applied to help solve pollution problems and aid the ecological recovery in polluted or degraded rivers. The aim is to provide guidance for use in maintaining the recovery of other rivers in the UK and to provide a template for applying technological, legal and economic measures to polluted rivers in other parts of the world.

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Contributors

Author: Peter Shaw

Author: Paul Kemp

Author: Chris Woolgar

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