Hazard and living environment: combining industrial risk and landscape representations (original) (raw)
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Nature Conservation and integrated coastal zone management in Europe: present and future
Sci Total Envir, 1995
The present and future of integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) in Europe is discussed with an emphasis on nature conservation. The position of nature conservation in physical planning and in legislation is discussed within the historical perspective of the Netherlands. With regard to the present position of nature conservation in planning and legislation, differences in Europe between the northwest, the south and the east are discussed. The roles of various organisations (such as NGOs, GOs, Universities and the European Union) in ICZM is briefly mentioned. The paper advocates a strong position for nature conservation in integrated coastal zone management if it is to be developed on a sustainable basis. SSDf 0169-2046(95)00234-O * Corresponding author. important both in terms of nature conservation and in terms of social and economic development.
Restoration Ecology, 2005
The Long-Term Vision for the Schelde estuary was determined as ''the development of a healthy and multifunctional estuarine water system that can be utilized in a sustainable way for human needs.'' This Dutch-Flemish managerial plan sets quality targets for the condition of the estuary by the year 2030 and the management measures to achieve them. Targets were developed and integrated from three central perspectives: accessibility of the ports, safety against floods in the densely populated catchment, and ecosystem health. This study focuses on the ecological rehabilitation of the estuary and the creation of sustainable nature, seeking possible alliances with security measures against floods, navigation requisites for port activities, and enhancement of the estuary's educational and recreational values. The estuary and its valley were subdivided into ecologically relevant zones. Key parameters were identified, and a conceptual rehabilitation model was developed, based on a problem analysis. Goals were set in a semiquantified way for most attributes of the estuarine functioning and prioritized for each zone. Rehabilitation measures with maximal contribution to the priority goals were identified for each zone. Spatial analysis of the study area indicated optimal areas for the implementation of these measures. To exemplify the array of possibilities on an ecosystem level, two different rehabilitation plans were proposed, each from a different approach. The potential contribution to the rehabilitation of the estuary was compared for both alternatives.
2008
Over the last centuries, the Rhône River has been deeply modified by numerous uses and activities like navigation, irrigation, fight flooding, hydroelectricity production… Embankment, dams and groyns constructions, water diversion, and secondary channel artificial cutoff generated morphological changes such as channel degradation and narrowing, bank stabilization, and former channel terrestrialisation. These changes result in a fundamental modification of flowing conditions during floods and connections between channel and floodplain ecosystems. Within the framework of compensatory measures, the CNR (Compagnie Nationale du Rhône, i.e. the Rhône River manager) wants to carry out a restoration project along the downstream reach of the Rhône River (southern France, 100 km length upstream from the mouth). The ambition is to combine both a decrease in local flood risk (by enlarging flood-carrying capacity) and an enhancement of geomorphological and ecological properties of the margins into the reach (sediment reworking, pioneer species regeneration…). The Rhône River is a good case study for complex and deeply altered systems. Indeed, important issues have to be integrated: (i) flood risk for the major city along the reach (Arles), (ii) bank erosion control near cultivated areas, (iii) former channels loss of diversity due to terrestrialisation processes and floodplain forest deconnection because of the channel degradation, (iv) pollution risk if polluted sediments are reworked (contamination by metals, PCB and radionuclides), (v) navigation, and (vi) sediment deficit that impacts coastal evolution downstream the reach (Camargues delta). We present a step-by-step strategy to reach an equilibrium between human activities and ecological purposes. All aspects are discussed: can historical state be considered as a reference-state? How can we choose sites to test the actions? How to design these actions? Which monitoring strategy has to be developed? Which kind of ecosystems can be expected under Mediterranean climate (composition, recovery rate, presence of exotic species…)?
Aquatic Living Resources, 2009
When reviewing the various fish-based community indicators aiming at assessing the ecological status of marine communities and/or ecosystems, a typology consisting of three major components emerges. The first component highlights the choice of relevant metrics associated with a level of organization (e.g. population or community). The second relies on the method used to combine the metrics (an aggregated indicator or a synoptic table). The third refers to the type of analysis (direct or indirect) that is used to establish the link between the metrics and a given pressure. In this paper we use the Vilaine coastal-estuarine fish communities as a case study to discuss and relate two different approaches to the suggested typology. The first approach (time-trend approach) is based on historical series of data, whereas the second approach (multi-metric index, MMI) is based on a geographic series including various French estuaries. They were developed or adapted from French studies but are representative of the approaches used in Europe. When applied to the case study, they differed in their diagnosis: the time-trend approach indicated that the bay of Vilaine habitat was deteriorating, whereas the MMI, which compares many French estuaries, indicated a good environmental state. Differences and complementarities between the approaches are thoroughly discussed with respect to the three mains components of the typology. This work appears at a particular moment, when several fish-based indicators are being developed in France and the rest of Europe. It intends to serve as an element of the ongoing reflection concerning the limitations of the various approaches that can be used to develop such indicators.
Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2008
Megatidal estuaries such as the Seine and the Somme (North-Western France) are rather well delimited and human impacts on them are well understood. Since the middle of the 19th Century, there has been a slow but irreversible degradation of the state of these English Channel estuaries. However, current conservation and restoration strategies tend to freeze habitats in a particular state, their status being defined, most often, through a patrimonial or utilitarian approach. Connectedness between biotopes (sensu habitat + community) has a tendency to be neglected, especially with regard to main ecological gradients, i.e., salinity. In this paper, evaluation methodologies are proposed with the intention of assessing changes to ecosystem functions, under anthropogenic disturbance, controlled or otherwise. The Seine (a heavily industrialised ecosystem) is compared to the Somme (considered here for its pseudo-natural features) in order to discriminate between oceanic processes (siltation and plugging of estuaries) and anthropogenic influences. Preservation and restoration of habitats rely on a robust scientific methodology. The multi-scale approach adopted in the projects presented here relies on sensitive socio-ecological assessment procedures, tools for evaluating ecological quality, and well-built monitoring programmes based upon pertinent indicators. Such managerial tools were used to refine strategies and make them compatible with the sustainable co-development of resources in a European context. This paper demonstrates how scientists were able to acquire and apply knowledge in the field of rehabilitation and restoration. Jointly with managers and policy-makers, they have brought scientific information and socio-economics together in order to answer questions about the restoration of sites or habitats and to anticipate future propositions in the spirit of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM).
Integrated environmental planning in European coastal regions
2005
In a metropolitan (urban-rural) landscape, the complexity and dynamics of societal developments no longer allow the classical role of the government and its policy instruments to be effective. The supply of blue-green quality (open space, scenery, nature, water) around residential areas, determining sustainable urban living conditions, is jeopardized by the current problems in landscape planning practice. Spatial planning needs to critically analyze the driving forces in the metropolitan landscape and why classical (rational) spatial planning is not effective anymore, in order to define new adequate ways of coordinating spatial developments. Issues that are particularly important for this analysis are the ineffective separation of rural and urban planning and of the public and private domain. The necessity, synergy and continuity with regard to the integration of these domains deserve to be submitted to thorough theoretical and practical analysis. A major research challenge is to incorporate ecological, environmental and natural values in spatial planning to fight environmental deterioration resulting from urban sprawl and related rapid developments. Once the process starts, it is rather likely that sprawl of new developments and urbanization will continue until all available space is occupied due to advantages offered by proximity and built infrastructure. These objectives are so important in European coastal regions, where land-use pressures reach highest rates (especially at the Mediterranean coast). An European project has been started to study and to contribute to a solution for land use conflicting dilemmas at the urban-rural transition zones (metropolitan landscape), in order to assure transfer of knowledge from both practice and science to converge into a coherent body of knowledge. In a nutshell the proposed research field has to explore the relations between land development i.e. building and land-use intensification with their effects on the sensitive coastal landscapes and on the other hand to explore mechanisms of incorporating natural, cultural and environmental quality values in the planning process. In addition to the locally-specific landscape transformation problems, nature-and human driven hazards, which may affect coastal systems and inner land stability of various regions in quite similar vain, will be addressed too. In this way the proposed research will pursue integrated approach to address all the above-mentioned issues.
Using an individual-based model to inform estuary management in the Baie de Somme, France
Oryx, 2008
Conservation managers need to be able to assess and prioritize issues that may affect their target habitats and species. In the Baie de Somme, France, conservation issues affecting overwintering shorebirds include hunting pressure, cockle fishing, recreational disturbance, Spartina encroachment, and changing sediment levels. We used an individual-based model to predict the effect of these issues on the survival of three shorebird species: dunlin Calidris alpina, oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus and curlew Numenius arquata. In the model, removing hunting from the mudflats in the eastern part of the estuary had the greatest positive effect on shorebird survival. Oystercatcher survival decreased markedly when stocks of large cockles were reduced to ,250 m -2 or numbers of fishermen per day were doubled. Short-term disturbance events, such as walkers, had more effect on shorebird survival than longterm events, such as fishermen. Dunlin, as a protected species, were able to feed outside the Réserve Naturelle and were unaffected by disturbance within the Réserve. Oystercatcher survival decreased when the number of disturbance events within the Réserve exceeded one h -1 , and curlew survival when disturbance events exceeded six h -1 . Spartina encroachment caused dunlin survival to decline steadily as feeding habitat was lost. Dunlin were also the species most affected by changes in sediment levels, likely to occur through either sedimentation or sea level rise.
Journal of Coastal Conservation, 2004
This paper outlines the implications of the Habitats Directive of the European Union for port extension projects. Descending from the ecosystem level to the species level it will also draw conclusions on what the successful and less successful elements in the practice of implementing the Habitats Directive requirements from a nature protection perspective are. The focus of the paper is on projects and plans for port extension in or in the proximity of designated sites and on species protection. On the basis of case studies of large ports in northwestern Europe, preliminary conclusions are formulated and recommendations for similar projects are presented.