The Riverbank and Connectivity 
From Art and Identity at the Water's Edge (Ashgate 2012) edited by Tricia Cusack

Rachel May (2006) analyses different concepts of “connectivity” in relation to the riverbank. Ecologists, for example, focus on the use of the river edge as a special habitat and corridor for plants and animals, and on its function as a channel between land and water. In this view, connectivity means that the riverbank is part of a natural system, including the potential to flood, thereby exchanging nutrients with the surrounding land. Urban designers and planners, on the other hand, employ a concept of connectivity to mean providing people with access to the riverbank, and “linking the river visually and conceptually to the city (greenways, parks, attractive riverfront destinations, integrated design elements, vista points, identifiable images and logos)” (May 2006, 480). However, urban development may disrupt the river’s ecological “connectivity”, as well as change the way people relate to the river.
Reference:
Rachel May. 2006. “‘Connectivity’ in Urban Rivers: Conflict and Convergence between Ecology and Design’. Technology in Society 28, 477-88.