Dynamics of developed coastlines

Question 1

What’s a common pool resource?

Answer 1

Fundamentally- something shared
A natural resource (timber, fish, water) to which users have free access
But actions by individual users collectively affects the quantity and quality of the resource itself.

Question 2

Tragedy of commons

Answer 2

Describes a situation in a shared-resource system where individual users acting independently according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling that resource through their collective action.

Shared pool -> everyone has self interest -> “just one more” -> combined = threshold for collapse reached

Question 3

How does Nordstrom, 1994 relate human agency to the coastal environment

Answer 3

It is not an intrusion into the coastal environment so much as it is now a part of the coastal environment and…human-altered landscapes can and should be modelled as a generic system.

Question 4

Tragedy of the commons - Hardin saw it as inevitable and the only way out was through…

Answer 4

Centralised top down governance
Private property

…People otherwise unable to solve the problem, left to their own (rational) behaviours.

Question 5

Who did not agree with Hardin…?

Answer 5

Elinor Ostrom

Question 6

Upstream downstream problem example

Irrigation

Answer 6

Water flows from an upstream source to a downstream sink, with different farmers distributed along its route.

If farmers upstream divert too much water, whether intentionally or as an unintended consequence of leaky irrigation infrastructure -> farmers downstream have access to less water.

If farmers upstream keep their irrigation works in good repair, then farmers downstream benefit regardless of whether they invest in maintaining their own infrastructure.

Question 7

The mobility of the resource- specifically its net transference from source to sink- means that…

Who’s free riding on someone else’s hard work?

Answer 7

In the first case, farmers upstream have no obvious incentive to consider the consequences of their actions for farmers downstream.
In the second case, farmers downstream have every incentive to free ride on the systematic investments by farmers upstream.

Question 8

What are socio-ecological “traps”?

Answer 8

The trap concept is that you become increasingly dependent on a specific resource.

Individuals/ social group/ society makes some set of a decisions that result in a circumstance that is impossible to reverse.

They are typically framed in terms of poverty- collective actions, driven by a lack of economic alternatives, results in liquidation of natural resources.

Interplay of social decisions/ actions and environmental responses drives the socio-ecological system to a particular state/ set of conditions.

Question 9

What is the “gilded” trap?

Answer 9

Social drivers (e.g pop growth, market demand) increase value of resource (and therefore its development) even as ecological system becomes more fragile (vulnerable, less resilient if shocked).

In a gilded trap, of greatest concern are system consequences associated with increasing risk that a crash can occur without warning.

Declining biodiversity in the target ecosystem = abundance in a particular resource.
In response to this increase in extraction of this resource.

Decline in biodiversity and emphasis on one resource limits alternatives available = dependence = lowers adaptive capacity to changes.

Question 10

Coastal gilded trap

Answer 10

In a coastal development context, lack of diversity
in the work economy (dependence on the tourist industry) and a dependence on coastal real estate for economic benefits.
This is also affecting coastal management interventions.

Question 11

What is the TALC model?

Answer 11

Butler proposed that most tourist resorts go through a six stage model and he called this the tourism life cycle model.

Question 12

What does the TALC model state?

Answer 12

Most tourist resorts start on a very small scale and get bigger and bigger until stagnation occurs.

Question 13

What are the 6 stages of the TALC model?

Answer 13

Exploration

Involvement

Development

Consolidation

Stagnation

Decline or rejuvunation

Question 14

Within the 6 stages of the TALC model, the following happens:

Exploration

Answer 14

A few hardy and adventurous people looking for something different in a holiday find a place that is special in terms of its culture, natural beauty, history or landscape.

There may be no tourist services available and local people will not be involved in tourist money making activities.

Question 15

Within the 6 stages of the TALC model, the following happens:

Involvement

Answer 15

Local people start to notice that there are increasing numbers of people coming to their local area.

They start businesses to provide accommodation, food, guides, and transport.

Question 16

Within the 6 stages of the TALC model, the following happens:

Development

Answer 16

Big companies start to see the emerging potential of the area as a tourist resort and therefore start to invest money in the region.

They build large hotel complexes and sell package holidays (a package might include travel, accommodation, food and excursions).

This makes the numbers of tourists swell dramatically and massively expands the number of job opportunities for people in the local region, in both tourist related jobs and in construction and services.

Question 17

Within the 6 stages of the TALC model, the following happens:

Consolidation

Answer 17

The local economy is probably dominated by tourism at this stage, and many local people will make their money from this type of industry.

However, this can remove people from other industries such as farming and fishing and these industries can suffer as a result.

There will be continued building and expansion of the resort BUT some of the older buildings will start to become unattractive and a lower quality client base might result.

Question 18

Within the 6 stages of the TALC model, the following happens:

Stagnation

Answer 18

Competition from other resorts, rowdiness and a loss of the original features (e.g. if it had a great beach but that is now crowded and full of rubbish) can cause the resort to stop growing.

The number of people going levels off then starts to decline, threatening local businesses and services.

Question 19

Within the 6 stages of the TALC model, the following happens:

Decline or rejuvanation

Answer 19

From the stagnation point onwards there are 2 basic possibilities:

Decline in various forms or rejuvenation (regrowth of the resort) Decline can be slow or rapid, and regular visitors are replaced by people seeking a cheap break or day trippers.

Rejuvenation involves a cash injection from either a private company or the government, to create a new attraction within the original resort to boost its popularity - such as the Pleasure Beach at Blackpool.

Question 20

Hidden key idea in Steneck et al, 2011

Answer 20

Alternative states [can be] resistant to change and persist for decades to centuries.
When two or more potential system states exist, there may be societal consensus or conflict re: which is most desirable.
Natural resource management is increasingly focused on building the resilience of desirable states and decreasing the resilience of undesirable alternative.

Question 21

What does Stone (2000) argued regarding sand as a common pool resource?

Answer 21

Something in the public trust = common pool resource (sort of)

Stone argues, in essence: if sand is found in legal terms to be a public trust, then it needs to be treated as a public trust (and it isn’t).

Question 22

Anthropogenic alee effect

Allee effect

Answer 22

A concept in ecology based on carrying capacity.
Based on the resources of an ecosystems, how many critters live there.

Applying this to the tourist context- a small population will grow and only use a couple of resources.

The rate of proliferation rises and then slows, eventually reaching 0.

Question 23

Why do you want angular sand grains for aggregation?

Answer 23

To make good concrete

Question 24

Why are seawalls cheaper than doing nothing?

Answer 24

Without adaptation, 0.2-4.6% of global population is expected to flood annually in 2100.

Annual losses of 0.3-9.3% GDP

Question 25

What happens to dikes in the constant protection strategy?

Answer 25

They are maintained at their height but not raised meaning sea level rise becomes more and more of a threat.

Question 26

What happens to dikes in the enhanced protection strategy?

Answer 26

Dikes are raised following both relative sea level rise and socioeconomic development

Question 27

What is a coastal anthrome?

Answer 27

Anthropogenic biome

Human systems with natural ecosystems embedded within them.

Question 28

Woodstock New York

Answer 28

Common pasture areas

A lot of towns – the public common anyone could turn up with grazing animals – anyone could use it – dates back to a time where private land is centralised (a few land owners)
Ponds and lakes are a classic closed system – closed body of water that anyone can fish and use for different things

Question 29

Beach nourishment – With the commons problem

Answer 29

There is a limited supply of sand – certainly usable sand
Either locally available or you have to import it from somewhere
You get non-local effects from beach nourishment
They effect neighbours and the neighbours that aren’t near you either
Intervening in alongshore sediment patterns has lateral effects

Question 30

What is a gilded trap?

Answer 30

Social drivers (e.g. pop growth, market demand) increase value of resource (and therefore its development) even as ecological system becomes more fragile (vulnerable, less resilient if shocked)

Cows make the most money regardless of what you introduce (figure) – but then the cows health declines

Question 31

End of the TALC model life cycle

Answer 31

• A – successful redevelopment? (renewed growth and expansion)
• B – Minor (successful) amendments? (slower growth)
• C – Circle your wagons? (downsize but stable visitation)
• D – Overuse resources w/out upkeep lose out to competitors (decline)
• E – Boondock Saints (grab your stuff and bail)

Question 32

Anthropogenic Allee effect

Answer 32

Cost of sand keeps rising as sand gets more difficult to find -> should go economically extinct