This elective course fits directly into programmes in Geography, Earth Sciences and Environmental Sciences. Materials covered are complementary to other programmes. The course is designed to appeal to a wide range of postgraduate students. It provides an overview of key principles that support river management applications. Geomorphic understandings of landscapes provide an integrative scientific template to inform management of river health (ecosystem functionality), flow/sediment regimes, turbidity (water quality), riparian vegetation and other concerns, with direct implications for a host of on-the-ground, planning and policy applications. Effective approaches to catchment-scale description of river forms, processes and patterns are used to model and quantitatively predict prospective river futures, thereby providing key insights for practice river management. The course is practically-based (hands-on), linking theoretical, remotely sensed and field understandings of river systems. Through a series of lectures, practical classes, presentations and discussion sessions, along with the field trip, this course provides a guided approach to independent learning and critical enquiry relating to advanced-level understanding of river systems. Principles are framed, and the course is taught, in context of distinctly situated approaches to river science and management in Aotearoa New Zealand.