Identification and prioritization of areas with high environmental risk in Mediterranean coastal areas: A flexible approach (original) (raw)
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In this study, a multi-criteria index was developed to assess anthropogenic stressors along the Medi-terranean coastline. The index aimed at geo-locating pollution hotspots for informed decision making related to coastal zone management. The index was integrated in a Geographical Information System based geodatabase implemented at several pilot areas along the Northern (Italy and France), Eastern (Lebanon), and Southern (Tunisia) Mediterranean coastlines. The generated stressor maps were coupled with a biodiversity richness index and an environmental sensitivity index to produce vulnerability maps that can form the basis for prioritizing management and mitigation interventions towards the identification of pollution hotspots and the promotion of sustainable coastal zone management. The results identified significant differences between the two assessment methods, which can bias prioritization in decision making and policy planning depending on stakeholders' interests. The discrepancies emphasize the need for transparency and understanding of the underlying foundations behind vulnerability indices and mapping development.
Coastal zones are exposed to the continuous action of several factors such as wave height and direction, wind speed, water depth, sediment dynamics, relative sea level change, rainfall and storm surges. All these natural factors make coastal areas highly vulnerable. The interaction between sea level rise and marine storms variability can produce several physical effects, like storm surges affecting coastal systems and low-lying areas. These physical effects can intensify the impacts of natural hazards on coastal zones, in particular those most vulnerable in terms of reduced capacity of adaptation of the ecological and the socio-economic systems. Coastal zones have a crucial importance for the Mediterranean countries as they represent a significant part of their economic activities. The increased risks of natural hazards exacerbated by climate change and the growing concentration of people and activities on Mediterranean coastal regions, could generate disputes on the use of coastal areas and resources requiring updated information and a better understanding on coastal zones vulnerability and exposure at the local scale. Even if extreme events often cannot be predicted, adaptation measures can be planned to reduce the potential risks and to cope with uncertainties. In order to support Mediterranean coastal policy makers in planning adaptation to the physical effects of climate and non-climate changes, the main aim of this research is to develop an Index-based method for the integrated assessment of coastal risk to multiple hazards (MHCRI), which takes into account the effects of sea level rise and storms variability together with human induced forcing. This research considers population growth and tourism development as the most significative human induced drivers and focuses on coastal erosion, coastal flooding and saltwater intrusion as the most relevant natural hazards in the Mediterranean coastal zones. The present thesis adopts the conceptual framework for vulnerability and risk defined in the Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC, 2014). A risk function is developed in order to operationalize the concept of risk into a concrete assessment method. Risk results from the joint action of climate and non-climate forcing and naturals hazards on the coastal system, which is described in terms of vulnerability and exposure. Forcing, Hazard, Vulnerability and Exposure represent the four factors of the Risk function and they are characterized by multiple variables. These variables, defined with relative scores and classes, are associated to the coastal spatial unit defined for the research through a GIS application. The GIS allows calculating the values related to simple or complex variables and to build layers that represent the single factor (e.g. exposure) or the risk index. With reference to the provisions of the ICZM Protocol, we introduce a methodology to define the limits of the coastal hazard zones and the setback lines for coastal erosion, coastal flooding and saltwater intrusion. The coastal hazard zone, intended as a coastal area where the risk occurs, represents the spatial field of application of the index-based method. Firstly a risk index is developed for each natural hazard namely the Coastal Erosion Risk Index (CERI), the Coastal Flooding Risk Index (CFRI), and the Salt Water Intrusion Risk Index (SWIRI). Secondly the multiple hazards risk index (MHCRI) is developed as a function of the three single hazard indices (CERI, CFRI and SWIRI). The field of application of the MHCRI is the coastal portion defined by the overlapping of the hazard zones identified for erosion, flooding and saltwater intrusion. The Risk value is calculated for each coastal spatial unit applying the Risk function. Multiple hazards risk results from the overlay of the three single hazards as the sum of the values assigned to the variables of each index. The results are mapped in a coastal risk map. The index-based method developed for this research is applied to a concrete case in the western shore of Sardinia and more precisely to the Gulf of Oristano, which is characterised by low-lying areas particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and by intense Storms driven by the winds of the fourth quadrant. The study area is divided in twenty-one coastal units according to coastal geomorphology: seventeen beach shores, three cliffs shores and one coastal lagoon. The MHCRI method is implemented to the Gulf of Oristano in order to analyse the potential consequences of climate and non-climate forcing on coastal erosion, coastal flooding and saltwater intrusion hazards and their impacts on the coastal assets at risk. The Exposure variables are evaluated through expert judgement based on a panel of experts specifically involved for this research. The outputs of the proposed coastal risk assessment method include vulnerability and risk maps for each single hazard and for multiple hazards that can be used to support Mediterranean coastal communities in the implementation of ICZM planning and adaptation measures. Vulnerability map for coastal erosion hazard shows “moderate” to “high” vulnerability values for the beach shores. This result is due to a low resilience of the shoreline associated to high susceptibility. The Risk map for coastal erosion reveals that the highest level of risk is "moderate" associated to urban settlements nearby the dune system. This is due to the low levels of forcing and hazard that insist on this shoreline. As expected the cliff shores present a very low risk to coastal erosion. Vulnerability map for coastal flooding hazard shows values ranging from moderate to high notwithstanding the high to very high susceptibility of the low-lying coastal areas. This result is due to the compensation effect of resilience variables (e.g. ecosystems health and drainage density). The Risk map for coastal flooding shows a moderate to high risk to some coastal villages settled near the shoreline and a moderate risk to flooding for agricultural settlements. The map shows a moderate risk to flooding also at a distance greater than 2km from the shoreline (e.g. the low-lying areas of the “Bonifica di Arborea”). The Vulnerability map for salt-water intrusion shows that the zones of the aquifer closer to the shoreline present the highest vulnerability values. The susceptibility to salt water intrusion is defined adapting the GALDIT index variables to the method proposed for this research. On the other side the Risk map for salt-water intrusion shows the high values for risk for almost the whole aquifer except the areas closer to the shoreline. This result shows the limitations of methods like GALDIT that focusing just on physical variables do not describe the effects of the socioeconomic variables. The coastal - 15 - hazard zone for multiple hazards where the MHCRI is applied, is given by the common area resulting from the overlay of the layers of the hazard zones defined for erosion, flooding and saltwater intrusion. The Vulnerability map for multiple hazards is represented by the sum of the vulnerability values associated to each spatial unit with respect to each Index. The risk map for multiple hazards is also represented by the information associated to each single risk map. The MHCRI index allows the identification of coastal assets exposed to the effects of different hazards and of areas contemporarily exposed to the three hazards. The variable "hazard" is the major innovation introduced in the function of risk than existing indexes. In addition, the variable that describes Hazard factor in the absence of forcing plays a key role in the definition of risk. Further research is required to apply the index to other contexts and to better refine the values and the classes defined for the various factors and in particular for Hazard.
The Management of Mediterranean Coastal Habitats: A Plea for a Socio-ecosystem-Based Approach
Evolution of Marine Coastal Ecosystems under the Pressure of Global Changes, 2020
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THE ROLE OF ‘NATURALNESS’AND SERAL STAGE IN THE ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF COASTAL SITES
Conservation and restoration of Mediterranean coastal habitats often requires rapid assessment of the 'state of health' of the environment. A potential solution to this issue may be represented by the implementation of a method for rapid assessment of the 'naturalness' of coastal areas. The degree of naturalness of a site is diagnosed by sampling and analysing the anthropogenicity of the ecosystem in the area, and, from its inverse interpretation, the naturalness grade that characterises the habitat may be deduced.
This paper presents a project devoted to identifying the environmental, historical and morphologically most sensitive and vulnerable priorities of the coastlines, with a view to providing decision-makers with sensitivity index maps for the planning of preventive actions and emergency responses in the event of an unforeseen outflow of hydrocarbons. The sensitivity index maps give information established by environmental sensitivity indices (ESI), represented in the maps with different lines and colours. Due to the considerable diversity in ecosystems and morphology in the Mediterranean and on account of the unique importance of the archaeological, historic and landscape sites along the Italian coastline, the decision was taken to extrapolate the ESI values on the basis of the matrices elaborated by Cinquepalmi et al (Prevention of hydrocarbons sea pollution: Sensitivity Index Maps for the Venice Lagoon as integral component of oil-spill contingency planning and response. Environmental Coastal Regions. WIT Transaction of Ecology and the Environmental volume 25. WIT Press, 1998) in a previous study with a similar aim on the Lagoon of Venice. With respect to the previous study a more simple core set of ESI was obtained from new matrices created in order to be used in the Mediterranean ecosystems: natural coastline, water stretches and artificial features. The resultant indices identify a single number that expresses all the qualitative and quantitative traits of the Italian coastline, both for land and seascapes, in clear maps of simple use. Environmental Sensitivity Maps offer a useful contribution to the prevention of pollution from oil spills and for combating the consequences of a possible accident along Mediterranean coastlines. They also constitute the most complete database, useful both for risk response and for an Integrated Coastal Zone Management.
Training manual : coastal management and conservation - applications in the Mediterranean region
University of Malta. International Environment Institute, 2007
Conservation is increasingly recognised as an endeavour critical to the survival of the human species and of many other forms of life. Although species extinction is a natural process, anthropogenic activity has resulted in accelerated extinction rates that are far beyond natural background levels. In recent decades, there has been widespread decline of biodiversity in all its forms, namely species, genes and ecosystems. Conservation strategies are intended to help halt this decline, but are inevitably constrained by the reality of limited resources. Conservation must therefore be based on priority-setting, that is, on exercises which determine how limited resources are best allocated. Furthermore, such strategies also specify how conservation resources are used. Two main groups of approaches may be distinguished, namely in-situ and ex-situ techniques, with the former occurring within the natural habitat range of species, and the latter focused on efforts outside this habitat range. '7he worst thing that can happen ... is not energy depletion economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes will be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process ongoing ... that will take millions of yeors to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us."
Conservation Biology, 2005
Marine environments have suffered from a lack of quantitative methods for delineating areas that are sensitive or vulnerable to particular stresses, natural and anthropogenic. We define sensitivity as the degree to which marine features respond to stresses, which are deviations of environmental conditions beyond the expected range. Vulnerability can then be defined as the probability that a feature will be exposed to a stress to which it is sensitive. Using these definitions, we provide a quantitative methodology for identifying vulnerable marine areas based on valued ecological features, defined as biological or physical features, processes, or structures deemed by humans to have environmental, social, cultural, or economic significance. The vulnerability of the valued ecological features is a function of their sensitivity to particular stresses and their vulnerability to those stresses. We used the methodology to demonstrate how vulnerable marine areas for two groups of endangered whale species (inshore and offshore) could be identified with a predictive habitat model and acoustic stress surfaces. Acoustic stress surfaces were produced for ferry traffic, commercial shipping traffic, potential offshore oil production, and small-boat traffic. The vulnerabilities of the two whale groups to the four stressors considered in this example were relatively similar; however, inshore species were more sensitive to on-shelf, coastal activities such as offshore hydrocarbon production, ferry traffic, and small-boat traffic. Our approach demonstrates how valued features can be associated with stresses and the likelihood of encountering these stresses (vulnerability) in order to identify geographic areas for management and conservation purposes. The method can be applied to any combination of valued ecological features and stressors.
Ecoregion-Based Conservation Planning in the Mediterranean: Dealing with Large-Scale Heterogeneity
PLoS One, 2013
Spatial priorities for the conservation of three key Mediterranean habitats, i.e. seagrass Posidonia oceanica meadows, coralligenous formations, and marine caves, were determined through a systematic planning approach. Available information on the distribution of these habitats across the entire Mediterranean Sea was compiled to produce basin-scale distribution maps. Conservation targets for each habitat type were set according to European Union guidelines. Surrogates were used to estimate the spatial variation of opportunity cost for commercial, non-commercial fishing, and aquaculture. Marxan conservation planning software was used to evaluate the comparative utility of two planning scenarios: (a) a wholebasin scenario, referring to selection of priority areas across the whole Mediterranean Sea, and (b) an ecoregional scenario, in which priority areas were selected within eight predefined ecoregions. Although both scenarios required approximately the same total area to be protected in order to achieve conservation targets, the opportunity cost differed between them. The whole-basin scenario yielded a lower opportunity cost, but the Alboran Sea ecoregion was not represented and priority areas were predominantly located in the Ionian, Aegean, and Adriatic Seas. In comparison, the ecoregional scenario resulted in a higher representation of ecoregions and a more even distribution of priority areas, albeit with a higher opportunity cost. We suggest that planning at the ecoregional level ensures better representativeness of the selected conservation features and adequate protection of species, functional, and genetic diversity across the basin. While there are several initiatives that identify priority areas in the Mediterranean Sea, our approach is novel as it combines three issues: (a) it is based on the distribution of habitats and not species, which was rarely the case in previous efforts, (b) it considers spatial variability of cost throughout this socioeconomically heterogeneous basin, and (c) it adopts ecoregions as the most appropriate level for large-scale planning.
Journal of Maps
This paper presents a map describing the main geomorphological and sedimentological features, hydrodynamics, benthic habitat distributions and human impact on the coastal and marine areas of the Archipelago of La Maddalena (NE Sardinia, western Mediterranean). This cartography is based on an interdisciplinary sea-land approach, with the aim being to support sustainable and successful beach management in the face of a changing climate and environment, thereby contributing to the achievement of the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (13, 14 and 15). In the Main Map (1:14,000 scale), the static and dynamic features of the beach systems and adjacent inner shelf are divided into thematic sections that include the geomorphological elements, hydrodynamics, sedimentological distributions, benthic habitat (mainly Posidonia oceanica meadow) and anthropogenic impacts. The map establishes a fundamental, multidisciplinary benchmark that is able to provide substantial scientific support to policymakers in relation to future vulnerability-assessment activities and the definition of land-management strategies.