Enabling Socio-Ecological Linkages for Rural River Restoration Through Human-Nature Connection

In countries like India with large rural populations, the restoration of rural rivers addresses challenges related to water security and biodiversity. Efforts to restore rural rivers also present unique opportunities for improving the socioecological linkages that connect people with nature. Communityled initiatives offer alternatives to heavily engineered water projects associated with high environmental, economic, and social costs. An understanding of the socio-ecological and human-river relations within the community helps to identify appropriate measures that can restore local rivers and restore the human-river relations that have been lost over time. This study is a preliminary attempt to apply the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) as a measure of human-nature connectedness to explore the socio-ecological dynamics within and among river communities. The mean CNS scores of four communities provide a basis for comparisons using ANOVA, that when supplemented with qualitative data, may offer insights into strategies and sustainable technologies to restore rural rivers and improve human-river dynamics.