Cheong et al. (2013) - coastal adaptation using ecology Flashcards
What do combined strategies offer when facing the increasing uncertainty of multiple climate-induced stressors?
Sea-level rise, storms and freshwater inputs — adaptation to one type of coastal stress/hazard/disaster may limit the capacity to respond to interacting or unexpected stresses.
Instead of promoting one particular strategy, a combination of existing methods promotes synergistic effects, enabling versatility and flexibility.
What does coastal adaptation in a changing climate need to take into account?
Several future scenarios, unforeseen consequences, unknown causes and processes of environmental change that limit predictability.
This Perspective calls for the robust, resilient and cost-effective solutions that combined strategies can offer to prepare people for a highly uncertain coastal environment in the future.
What does the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) framework promote?
Integration of different coastal sectors and activities by coordinating relevant government agencies and the private sector.
What common difficulties are faced with implementing ICZM in both developed and developing economies?
Inadequate financial commitment, ineffective coastal governance, politics and the nature of public participation can hinder the formation of ICZM regulations, and make it challenging to incorporate climate change into unstable ICZM regimes.
In the coastal zone, no- or low-regret options include…
Revamping early warning systems, preventing land reclamation, offering beach nourishments and improving housing and transportation systems.
What are no regret policies?
An approach to management that involves erring on the side of caution and planning well in advance.
No regrets options are by definition GHG emissions reduction options that have negative net costs, because they generate direct or indirect benefits that are large enough to offset the costs of implementing the options.
What does ecological engineering involve?
Identifying a threat or set of threats to the shoreline (for example, sea-level rise or waves) and use synthetic, engineered structures (such as sea-walls, rock revetments and levees) to reduce that threat.
In the process of building these structures, natural ecosystems including marine and terrestrial grasses, trees and structure-forming animals (for example, oysters) are destroyed and replaced by sea-walls and rock revetments.
Although these structures have been successful in protecting local areas from deterioration at times, what negative outcome can they inflict?
They tend to erode neighbouring coastal areas, and can damage or destroy surrounding ecosystems.
Ecological engineering for coastal protection is largely based on the emerging theory in conservation and restoration that emphasizes…
the positive interactions that generate synergies.
Positive interactions are those in which at least one species benefits from the presence of another species, without harm to either.
Example of how coastal engineers have been building with nature to maximize its positive effects and increase the resilience of their man-made structures to oceanic disturbance.
In the Netherlands, levees built to prevent flooding during storms are maintained terrestrially with a thick grass cover to increase their integrity, and wetlands seaward of the levees reduce exposure to wave action.
Along coastlines that are threatened by the rise of mean sea-level, conservation and restoration of salt marshes facilitate deposition of sediments and accretion of organic matter that can raise the marsh platform and keep pace with sea-level rise to a certain exten
Why is it mangrove planting and restoration are increasingly viewed as an adaptation strategy to sea-level rise and coastal storms?
Mangroves can both facilitate sedimentation and dampen wave stress.
What are oyster reefs?
Once settled and fully grown, oyster reefs help to protect shorelines by reducing incoming wave energy and marsh erosion, and enhancing shoreline accretion.
