Re: 9.42 Impacts of Humans on River Fluxes and Morphology By Irina Overeem, Albert J. Kettner and James P.M. Syvitski ABSTRACT Humans are influencing rivers directly by engineering, and indirectly by changing land‐ use in river drainage basins, and by climate change. Humans now simultaneously accelerate and decelerate fluxes of water and sediment and nutrients on a scale that exceeds natural fluxes. Deforestation and land‐use change have increased sediment loads by factor 4‐6 in sensitive river basins. Nutrients and trace element fluxes, both due to agricultural and urban pollution, appears to be a worldwide problem, 65% of the world’s rivers biodiversity is considered under moderate or high threat. Over 40% of global river discharge is currently intercepted and regulated by large (≥0.5 km 3 ) dams and reservoirs. On a global scale 26% of the river sediment that would flow to the coast and deltas has been intercepted by retention in these reservoirs. Embankments change the connections between the river channel and its adjacent floodplain, it induces fast incision and increase of riparian zones, decreases sinuosity and it artificially superelevates the channel. Flood risks are lessened, except for low‐frequency, high magnitude events. Dam breaks or levee breaches caused 52 major floods over the last 23 years. Even the most pristine rivers in the Arctic regions show consistent increase in annual discharge over the entire Arctic region (+9.8%) over the period 1977‐2007. Quantitative mapping of human influences on rivers and enhancing our understanding of human dimensions has become a critical piece of integrated river research and management framework. INTRODUCTION Present‐day drainage basins and rivers cannot be considered without regarding humans affecting them. Humans use rivers as a source of fresh water, for their ecological resources such as fish, for irrigation purposes to increase agricultural production, as a transport pathway, for hydropower, and more rarely as a defense mechanism. These changes affect river morphology and floodplain connections by embanking channels and