| International river basins have been studied from the perspective of cooperation or conflict but have seldom been explored in the international relations literature in regards to what sort of drivers impact river degradation. This paper attempts to address this gap through the exploration of the factors associated with river degradation. It tests hypotheses linking indicators of social conditions and river degradation in international rivers. Four environmental worldviews -- the Social Green, Market Liberal, Institutionalism and Bio-environmentalism -- are used to guide the selection of indicators of possible social conditions that might cause river degradation. One hundred and eleven (111) river basins were selected and assigned a river degradation score using the biodiversity threat data generated by Vorosmarty et al. (2010). The data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation co-efficient. Statistically significant correlations were found between the independent variables of population density, treaty robustness and gross income, and river degradation (the dependent variable). |
