Water's edge in rip, standing fences beginning to break (9)
I believe the answer is:
riverbank
'water's edge' is the definition.
(by the edge of a river)
'rip standing fences beginning to break' is the wordplay.
'rip' becomes 'rive' (synonyms).
'standing' becomes 'rank' (as in social standing or rank).
'fences' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are fenced off).
'beginning to' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'break' is 'b'.
'rank' enclosing 'b' is 'rbank'.
'rive'+'rbank'='RIVERBANK'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for riverbank that I've seen before include "home of the vole" , "where those rowing may end up" , "where our Parliament stands" .)