Ghost Rivers and Daylighting in Urban Landscapes
Will be published approx. on 14. August 2026
Book
Hardback
104 pages
978-1-83699-444-2 (ISBN)
Description
Across the world's major cities, many rivers and streams have been buried, culverted, or channelled underground in the pursuit of urban order and expansion. These hidden waterways-sometimes known as "ghost rivers"-linger beneath the surface, shaping cityscapes, cultural imaginaries, and contemporary environmental debates. This volume investigates the histories, meanings, and afterlives of ghost rivers through comparative case studies in London, Sydney, and Tokyo.. It examines the growing international movement to "daylight" concealed rivers as both ecological intervention and cultural practice, with reference to influential projects such as Seoul's Cheonggyecheon Stream and similar initiatives in Auckland, New York, and Zurich. Bringing together perspectives from cultural geography, urban studies, and sociohydrology, the book situates river concealment and restoration within broader discussions of environmental heritage, memory, and urban sustainability. It reveals how the material and metaphorical "ghostliness" of buried rivers continues to inform debates on nature, culture, and the reimagination of cities in the Anthropocene. A interesting read for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Tourism, Urban Studies, Urban Planning, Cultural Geography and Hydrology students, practitioners and policymakers
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Wallingford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-83699-444-2 (9781836994442)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Philip Hayward (Author, Series Edited By)
Philip Hayward is an adjunct professor in the School of Community, Culture and Global Studies at the University of British Columbia, Kelowna. He is editor of the Environmental Humanities journal Shima, a strategic advisor to the international River Cities Network and co-coordinator of the Flowzones project in northern New South Wales (Australia). He has written widely on riverine and related aquatic topics in various journals and his latest volume is Aquapelagos: Integrated Marine and Terrestrial Assemblages, co-edited with May Joseph (Pratt Institute, New York) and published by Routledge in December 2024.
Junichi Hasegawa (Author)
Junichi Hasegawa is a professor at Keio University in Tokyo. He has written books and articles on British and Japanese urban policy and urban planning during and after the Second World War, including Replanning the Blitzed City Centre (Open University Press, 1992), 'The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction in 1940s Britain', Twentieth Century British History Vol. 10 (1999) and (with Nick Tiratsoo) Urban Reconstruction in Britain and Japan, 1945-1955 (University of Luton Press, 2002). His recent publications include 'The Infilling and Reclamation of Inland Waterways in Tokyo, 1945-1962', Shima Vol. 17 (2023), 'The plans for Tokyo Bay: the challenge of urban policy, 1950s-1990s', Urban History Vol. 51 (2024) and 'Redeveloping Tokyo's Meiji Jingu Gaien Area: The Metropolitan Government's City Planning Runs Amok', Asia-Pacific Journal Japan Focus Vol. 23 (2025).
Philip Hayward is an adjunct professor in the School of Community, Culture and Global Studies at the University of British Columbia, Kelowna. He is editor of the Environmental Humanities journal Shima, a strategic advisor to the international River Cities Network and co-coordinator of the Flowzones project in northern New South Wales (Australia). He has written widely on riverine and related aquatic topics in various journals and his latest volume is Aquapelagos: Integrated Marine and Terrestrial Assemblages, co-edited with May Joseph (Pratt Institute, New York) and published by Routledge in December 2024.
Junichi Hasegawa (Author)
Junichi Hasegawa is a professor at Keio University in Tokyo. He has written books and articles on British and Japanese urban policy and urban planning during and after the Second World War, including Replanning the Blitzed City Centre (Open University Press, 1992), 'The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction in 1940s Britain', Twentieth Century British History Vol. 10 (1999) and (with Nick Tiratsoo) Urban Reconstruction in Britain and Japan, 1945-1955 (University of Luton Press, 2002). His recent publications include 'The Infilling and Reclamation of Inland Waterways in Tokyo, 1945-1962', Shima Vol. 17 (2023), 'The plans for Tokyo Bay: the challenge of urban policy, 1950s-1990s', Urban History Vol. 51 (2024) and 'Redeveloping Tokyo's Meiji Jingu Gaien Area: The Metropolitan Government's City Planning Runs Amok', Asia-Pacific Journal Japan Focus Vol. 23 (2025).