Societal Drivers of European Water Governance: A Comparison of Urban River Restoration Practices in France and Germany

摘要: The European water governance took a decisive turn with the formulation of Water Framework Directive (WFD), which demands restoration all bodies that did not achieve sufficient ecological status. Urban rivers are particularly impaired by human activities and their restorations motivated multiple societal drivers, such as requirements laws legislation, citizen needs for better quality life. In this study we investigated relative influence socio-political socio-cultural drivers on urban river comparing projects different policy contexts cultural norms to cross-fertilize knowledge. A database 75 in French German major cities was compiled apply (a) comparative statistical analysis main project features, i.e., motivation, goals, measures, morphological status, date; (b) qualitative textual descriptions titles. results showed despite powerful directive, still keep national specificities. WFD drives more intensity German, rather than French, restoration. This limits macro-level microlevel driven aspects nature perception relationships between humans rivers.