Dredging fundamentally reshapes the ecological significance of 3D terrain features for fish in estuarine seascapes

Context Landscape modification alters the condition of ecosystems and the structure of terrain, with widespread impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Seafloor dredging impacts a diversity of flora and fauna in many coastal landscapes, and these processes also transform three-dimensional terrain features. The potential ecological significance of these terrain changes in urban seascapes has, however, not been investigated. Objectives We examined the effects of terrain variation on fish assemblages in 29 estuaries in eastern Australia, and tested whether dredging changes how fish associate with terrain features. Methods We surveyed fish assemblages with baited remote underwater video stations and quantified terrain variation with nine complementary metrics (e.g. depth, aspect, curvature, slope, roughness), extracted from bathymetry maps created with multi-beam sonar. Results Fish diversity and abundance were strongly linked to seafloor terrain in both natural and dredged estuaries, and were highest in shallow waters and near features with high curvature. Dredging, however, significantly altered the terrain of dredged estuaries and transformed the significance of terrain features for fish assemblages. Abundance and diversity switched from being correlated with lower roughness and steeper slopes in natural estuaries to being linked to features with higher roughness and gentler slopes in dredged estuaries. Conclusions Contrasting fish-terrain relationships highlight previously unrecognised ecological impacts of dredging, but indicate that plasticity in terrain use might be characteristic of assemblages in urban landscapes. Incorporating terrain features into spatial conservation planning might help to improve management outcomes, but we suggest that different approaches would be needed in natural and modified landscapes.

Cultural Landscapes Preservation at the Interface of Urban Planning and Sprawl

From ancient times, the sea has played a key role in shaping and generating settlements and cities. The history of civilizations has been marked by the cultural development of human societies along coastlines. Accordingly, these territories are harbor of an important coastal heritage; that plays a pivotal role in maintaining the link between the past and the future. In fact, while cities grow and their populations increase, their planning becomes a challenge for sustainable development. Through different forms and mechanisms, coastal sprawl is materialized, by the massive occupation of populations and industrial activities along coastlines. In this vein, coastlines endure many conflicts, which lead to the degradation of cultural and natural resources and may result in loss of cultural identity associated with the presence of cultural landscapes. The paper aims, to discuss planning approaches and challenges related to managing cultural and coastal landscapes, facing the impact of coastal sprawl. The paper is based on a landscape analysis; it interviews the urban, social, juridical and morphological frame. An understanding of urban sprawl through the lens of Annaba’s coastline is required for its implication as a social support of the identity and the history of the city. The paper also examines how the coastalization affects the cultural heritage based on the monograph of one of the valuable French colonial constructions in Algeria. Lastly, the study demonstrates, some key opportunities for advancing future adjustments, and coastal management approaches. For instance, new tools and more appropriate methodologies that combine the preservation of the coastline and the preservation of the cultural heritage.

Coastal tourism, market segmentation and contested landscapes

Governments are increasingly adopting Blue Growth strategies as a means of promoting economic development. Although Blue Growth offers development opportunities, from a local perspective it is often concentrated in inaccessible sectors or has negative impacts on coastal communities and landscapes. We argue that to be of use to local communities, tourist experiences of coastal landscapes need to be understood from a community-led, rather than market-led, perspective. Tourist market segmentation can help reveal such experiences but has predominately been used in a narrow, econometric way by the tourism industry, market researchers and policymakers. These approaches often fail to capture the innate experiential nature of coastal tourism and often result in the production of coastal tourism that is unsympathetic to community landscape perspectives and values. To address this gap, this paper adopts an experiential tourist segmentation approach based on community experiences of coastal landscapes. Applied to data collected from a tourist survey on the west coast of Ireland, we identify five landscape experiences: well-being experiences; conscientious travel experiences; nature experiences; coastal change experiences; and cultural experiences. Based on these experiences, four alternative tourist segments were identified, with significant alignment to communities around sustainable, ethical and locally sensitised forms of tourism, as follows: Blue Health Seekers; Nature Escapers; Pristine Seekers; and Heritage Explorers. The paper concludes by arguing that adopting more experiential and dialogical approaches to market segmentation will identify tourist and communities’ perspectives in ways that are compatible and will reveal opportunities for more inclusive and locally accessible forms of Blue Growth.

First Perceptions of Hydroperiod Mapping and Assessment of Shallow Waters in Coastal Landscapes by Drone-Based Monitoring Activities: A Remote-Sensing and GIS Approach

Beyond the importance of ponds for aquatic and terrestrial life, pond networks seem to be crucial to providing a vital spatial resource in response to global climate change for all migrating and spreading taxa. Additionally, ponds offer sustainable solutions to issues of concern in water management, such as nutrient retention, rainfall interception, or carbon sequestration. Although the ecological role of shallow waters seems clear, significant work must be performed to set future guidelines and actions towards their conservation. The main aims of the present study are to (i) georeference all small temporary wetlands within the Tyrrhenian central Italy coastal area, (ii) evaluate their hydroperiod, and (iii) calculate their surface size variability. We found 137 wetlands, 53 of which were temporary and contained listed habitats. Each wetland’s status was assessed in relation to land use and proximity to stressors (e.g., urban centres, railways, roads) while observing the relationship between pond occurrence, lithology, and permeability. Amongst the detected wetlands, we selected and monitored 21 temporary ponds (homogeneously distributed within the study area) for 12 months using images collected by the non-professional drone Parrot Bebop 2. All images were then acquired in ArcGIS to georeference all temporary ponds. The analysis confirmed that the majority of the surveyed ponds are in close proximity to roads and tracks, which might have significant impacts on the preservation of such fragile habitats. Moreover, despite the wide variability of hydroperiod duration, the greater part of the pools fill with water in autumn and dry in summer, in alignment with the Mediterranean climate. This preliminary study allowed for the creation of the first temporary ponds’ database, which is useful for monitoring their status in central Italy and planning further studies to assess eventual detrimental effects caused by human-mediated activities.

Raise the dikes and re-use the past? Climate adaptation planning as heritage practice

Across Europe, coasts are drastically being changed to adapt to relative sea level rise, which will influence coastal landscapes and heritage in many ways. In this paper, we introduce a methodological starting point for analysing the ways in which landscape architects and spatial planners engage with coastal landscapes and coastal heritage in the context of current climate adaptation projects. We test these methodologies by applying them to the Marconi dike strengthening project in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. This city’s dike fortification is an interesting case, as it offers many opportunities for re-designing heritage. The city borders the Wadden Sea area, a tidal mudflat area protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its natural and geological heritage values. The area also consists of a rich cultural landscape, which is overlooked in the public image and in local policy. We conclude that landscape architects and planners should strengthen not only the dike, but also the interpretation of the past that dominates policy and political debates in the area. We also find that the existing heritage production model of Ashworth and Tunbridge can provide some useful structure for understanding and contextualizing spatial planning for climate change as a way of doing heritage.

Water in the Wilderness: The Group of Seven and the Coastal Identity of Lake Superior

This paper challenges the wilderness ideology with which the Group of Seven’s coastal landscapes of the north shore of Lake Superior are often associated. Focusing my analysis around key works by Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald, and Franklin Carmichael, I offer an alternative perspective on commonly-adopted national and wilderness narratives, and instead consider these works in line with an emergent ecocritical consciousness. While a conversation about wilderness in relation to the Group of Seven often ignores the colonial history and Indigenous communities that previously inhabited coastal Lake Superior, this paper identifies these within a discussion of the environmental history of the region. That the environment of the north shore of Lake Superior was a primordial space waiting to be discovered and conquered only seeks to ratify the landscape as a colonial space. Instead, by engaging with the ecological complexities and environmental aesthetics of Lake Superior and its surrounding shoreline, I challenge this colonial and ideological construct of the wilderness, accounting for the prevailing fur trade, fishing, and lumber industries that dominated during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A discussion of environmental history and landscape painting further allows for a consideration of both the exploitation and preservation of nature over the course of the twentieth century, and looks beyond the theosophical and mystical in relation to the Group’s Lake Superior works. As such, the timeliness of an ecocritical perspective on the Group of Seven’s landscapes represents an opportunity to consider how we might recontextualize these paintings in a time of unprecedented anthropogenic climate change, while recognizing the people and history to whom this land traditionally belongs.