Managing floods, managing people: A political ecology of watercourse regulation on the Kemijoki

Abstract

The stark discharge variations on the Kemijoki, the longest river in Finnish Lapland, have long formed an integral part of the rhythmic dynamics of social and ecological life along its banks. With the spread of permanent infrastructure and activities, however, the annual spring-flood is increasingly conceived as a hazard. Fuelled, among others, by recent flooding events, climate-change scenarios, conflicts about hydropower developments and an EU directive, plans are being debated to dam the river in hitherto protected areas in order to decrease flood-risk downstream. This article outlines the divergent perceptions of floods, development and the nature of a river, on which the debate is based, and argues for a political ecology that understands non-human dynamics not as a backdrop, but as integral constituent of environmental politics.