In this chapter, we turn to the four most significant instream uses of water: navigation, hydropower, fishing, and recreation, trying to understand both the historical arc of these uses and their current importance and impacts. We address questions such as these:
How do societies use rivers for transportation, energy, food, and recreation?
Are those uses compatible with maintaining healthy river ecosystems?
Is water-based transportation still important to the US economy?
Will increasing reliance on hydropower help mitigate climate change, or make us more vulnerable to it?
Why are salmon and other iconic fish doing so badly?
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