Many human societies have settled near rivers in order to benefit from their resources. The result is a large number of river towns around the world, made up of more or less large areas of urban-water contact. Social science research shows that the relationship between cities and rivers has evolved with the technical and philosophical revolutions that have taken place, leading today to new challenges straddling the reclaiming and restoration of river corridors. In the west of France, there is a large network of small towns that have historically taken advantage of the presence of a dense hydrographic network to develop a whole economic and social life around water: water mills, tanneries, transport, bathing. Today, most of these uses have disappeared, calling into question the place of rivers in these ordinary urban spaces. To examine the way in which rivers find their place in these evolving cities, we use the concept of social connectivity to study the contemporary materiality of the links between societies and rivers. A spatial analysis combining GIS and fieldwork was carried out on 4 small river towns with a strong urban-river interface. We analyze the potential for social links with the river through spatial indicators of accessibility and the reception of individuals along the river. This work makes it possible to account for the importance given to the river in the way of thinking about the city and urban planning, while questioning the influence of this materiality on individual representations of river environments.

Many human societies have settled near rivers in order to benefit from their resources. The result is a large number of river towns around the world, made up of more or less large areas of urban-water contact. Social science research shows that the relationship between cities and rivers has evolved with the technical and philosophical revolutions that have taken place, leading today to new challenges straddling the reclaiming and restoration of river corridors. In the west of France, there is a large network of small towns that have historically taken advantage of the presence of a dense hydrographic network to develop a whole economic and social life around water: water mills, tanneries, transport, bathing. Today, most of these uses have disappeared, calling into question the place of rivers in these ordinary urban spaces. To examine the way in which rivers find their place in these evolving cities, we use the concept of social connectivity to study the contemporary materiality of the links between societies and rivers. A spatial analysis combining GIS and fieldwork was carried out on 4 small river towns with a strong urban-river interface. We analyze the potential for social links with the river through spatial indicators of accessibility and the reception of individuals along the river. This work makes it possible to account for the importance given to the river in the way of thinking about the city and urban planning, while questioning the influence of this materiality on individual representations of river environments.