Urban river restoration: The confluence between restoration of people and restoration of place in light of Holling's dynamic of creative destruction and Bonaventure's theology of human mediation (Holling, C.S., Saint Bonaventure)

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary study of the Anacostia River restoration in Washington, D.C. It brings two paradigms into dialogue, one in ecology and one in theology, and generates interdisciplinary principles that are applied to assess the progress of the restoration.; The two paradigms are C.S. Holling's adaptive renewal cycle with its dynamic of creative destruction and Saint Bonaventure's theology of human mediation. Holling's paradigm relates to how change happens in ecosystems as complex systems. It looks to creation as a source of metaphor and proposes ways to build resilience in ecological and social-ecological systems. In Bonaventure's approach creation is a semiotic reality, and humans are "in the middle" between the non-human creation and God. They are called to reconcile creation and God in a dynamic mediating role that incorporates stewardship but goes beyond it into a Franciscan kind of co-creatorship.; Eight interdisciplinary principles emerged out of the relationship between Holling and Bonaventure. It was shown how these principles can inform the practice of ecological engineering. Of particular interest were ways in which the principles can help reconnect people with place and build the resilience of the social-ecological system.; The primary effort in applying the principles to the case study was to evaluate the restoration according to an interdisciplinary framework in which the river is viewed both as an object of science and in its spiritual/theological dimensions. The case study incorporated a strong abductive component in which the river was seen through the eyes of those living along it. The results indicate that there is a need to design the restoration to enhance contemplative experiences of the river. A new paradigm is proposed of the human person, and the engineer in particular, as a contemplative mediator of the river's recovery. Further, it is proposed that this paradigm can contribute to an understanding of authentic development.