Analysis of the socio-ecological drivers of the recreational use of temporary streams and rivers

The undervaluation of the ecosystem services that temporary waterways provide to human wellbeing is one of the most important threats for the conservation and management of these ecosystems. Recreational services might be particularly undervalued in temporary waterways, as there is some evidence that social perceptions and attitudes towards rivers and streams may depend on their flow permanency. The objective of this study was to determine if the recreational use (here considered as an indicator of social perceptions) of temporary wa-terways differs from the recreational use of perennial waterways. We analysed the recreational use of temporary and perennial waterways in a Mediterranean basin using geotagged photographs (with temporal and spatial-coordinate metadata) that were uploaded during the period 2003-2020 on the outdoor recreational website Wikiloc, as well as on Google Earth. The observed recreational activity in each type of waterway was compared with the expected activity, estimated from the proportion of temporary and perennial waterways in the basin, considering the accessibility from both paved and unpaved roads, proximity to populations and flow permanency were significant drivers of recreational activities associated with waterways, thus confirming our two hypotheses of a negative bias towards temporary waterways.This is the first study of our knowledge reporting evidence on the role of flow permanency on the social perception towards waterways. The undervaluation of temporary wa-terways is one of their major threats, and we must activity design and implement management actions to change this social perception from educational activities at schools to restoration actions. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study found that social perceptions towards flow permanency affect recreational use of waterways. Due to the undervaluation of temporary waterways being a major threat, actions need to be taken to change this social perception.