The utility of surfers’ wave knowledge for coastal management

In the face of environmental change, managing coastal resources effectively to benefit coastal stakeholders means understanding both complex coastal processes and the needs of stakeholders. Surfers are a culturally and economically significant group of coastal resource users who, in the act of participating in their sport, can acquire deep knowledge about the coastal environment and about wave resources in particular. As the primary users of wave resources, surfers could contribute substantially to both understanding the resources themselves and supplying locally-relevant data to inform their management. This study investigates the local knowledge of surfers through two surveys of more than one thousand California surfers and promulgates, based on survey data, a formal definition of surfers’ local knowledge as "wave knowledge." In so doing, this study makes the case that wave knowledge can be used to inform coastal management decision-making in those situations where wave resources, and thus the growing stakeholder group of surfers, could possibly be affected.     

A systematic quantitative review of coastal and marine cultural ecosystem services: Current status and future research

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are the non-material benefits obtained from ecosystems that contribute to human well-being. They are often under-represented in ecosystem services assessments due to difficulties identifying and valuing intangible attributes. This risks a lack of understanding and consideration of CES by decision-makers. A systematic review was done on coastal and marine CES to identify: geographic distribution of research; effective methods for assessing CES; specific habitats/ecosystems that supply CES; subcategories most frequently addressed; and knowledge gaps. Results revealed limited information exists about coastal and marine CES. There is a disparity in the global distribution of studies with little knowledge about CES in developing countries, as well as a disparity within developed countries; with most research undertaken in Europe and North America. There is a dearth of information on CES derived from specific coastal and marine habitats/ecosystems, reflecting a poor understanding of socio-ecological relationships and the different values people assign to these areas. There is a need to develop indicators with the capacity to measure and track changes in CES over time. Participatory approaches using qualitative methods were most effective in identifying CES; however, these lacked a deliberative element that would provide a comprehensive assessment of shared values in public areas. Overall, publications typically theorised about the usefulness of data on CES to inform and support decision makers, and more research is required on how qualitative data on CES can be represented for practical use by coastal and marine resource managers, and the value of these in the real world.     

Integrated terrestrial and marine planning in England’s coastal inter-tidal zone: Assessing the operational effectiveness of the Coastal Concordat

In many countries, the regulation of activities and development in the marine environment has begun to evolve from a compartmentalised, fragmented, sectoral and uncoordinated system into a more strategic, comprehensive, integrated and transparent one. A remaining challenge, however, is the effective integration of marine and terrestrial planning, because the tools and mechanisms necessary for its achievement have been slow to be implemented. The introduction of the England's Coastal Concordat in 2013, as a voluntary framework for better integrating marine and terrestrial planning consents, represents an atypical mechanism to secure these goals. This paper is a preliminary survey of the perceived effectiveness of the Coastal Concordat, based on a survey of 32 professionals from the terrestrial planning authorities, marine statutory agencies and marine-sector businesses. While this evaluation is made less than two years after the introduction of the Coastal Concordat, it is important to undertake a preliminary examination, from various stakeholder perspectives, of the factors likely to be influential in the integration of regulatory systems, before the approach is ‘rolled out’ across other parts of England's inter-tidal coastal zone. The results indicate that the Coastal Concordat has produced benefits for marine planning in coastal areas, but that these improvements are largely experienced within the public sector in terms of better communication, early engagement, and a single point of contact. The marine sector businesses are more neutral about the benefits of the Concordat. It is clear, however, that marine sector businesses must participate in the formulation of any reforms if an effective integrated system of planning and management of coastal environments is to be achieved.     

2013年我国近海赤潮引发种种类和分布研究

对2013年全国海洋环境监测1626个站位生物数据进行分析, 以近2001年～2013年在我国近海海域明确发生赤潮的生物作为赤潮引发种, 开展其种类组成和数量分布研究。结果显示: (1)我国近海赤潮引发种隶属于8门60种, 其中产毒种12种, 甲藻27种, 硅藻20种。(2)2013年共监测到上述赤潮引发种50种, 各监测站位种类数在0～25种之间, 平均密度在84～1.16×10¹¹个/m³之间, 赤潮引发种种类数、密度分布大致都呈现近岸至远海递减的趋势, 但在长江口及其邻近海域, 呈现先增大后减小趋势。(3)2013年各海区赤潮引发种种类数在36～42之间, 平均密度渤海>东海>南海>黄海, 多样性指数渤海>黄海>南海>东海, 都以中肋骨条藻(Skeletonema costatum)为优势种。(4)作为高频赤潮引发种,2013年中肋骨条藻(S. costatum)主要分布在我国近岸及近海海域; 夜光藻(Noctiluca scintillans)在我国近岸、近远海海域都有分布; 东海原甲藻(Prorocentrum donghaiense)主要分布在黄海和东海的近岸和近海海域; 米氏凯伦藻(Karenia mikimotoi)分布较为广泛, 但出现的站位较少; 红色中缢虫(Mesodinium rubrum)、赤潮异弯藻(Heterosigma akashiwo)、红色赤潮藻(Akashiwo sanguinea)只在很少区域有分布。该研究结果有助于摸清我国近海海域赤潮生物种类和分布状况, 可为赤潮的预警及其防灾减灾提供基础科学依据。     

湛江东海岛裂流风险评价

裂流是海滩旅游中重要的安全隐患,国内目前还很少有裂流风险的评价研究。文章基于地形动力学模型对湛江东海岛海滩裂流风险从年平均、逐月平均和逐月常浪向状况下进行了评价。结果表明:(1)东海岛海滩全年平均状态为沙坝消散型海滩,一年四季出现裂流的概率较大,为中等危险性的海滩;(2)逐月平均海滩类型以沙坝消散型为主,但在6—7月海滩类型为低潮沙坝/裂流型,海滩风险等级最高,8月的月平均海滩状态为无沙坝消散型,属于危险性较低海滩,但此时波浪向为SE向时,海滩状态变成低潮沙坝/裂流型,裂流风险等级很高;(3)海滩管理者要重视对海滩裂流风险的管理。     

A method to estimate climate-critical construction materials applied to seaport protection

Climate adaptation for coastal infrastructure projects raises unique challenges because global-scale environmental changes may require similar projects to be completed in many locations over the same time frame. Existing methods to forecast resource demand and capacity do not consider this phenomenon of a global change affecting many localities and the resulting increased demand for resources. Current methods do not relate to the most up-to-date climate science information, and they are too costly or too imprecise to generate global, regional, and local forecasts of “climate-critical resources” that will be required for infrastructure protection. They either require too much effort to create the many localized designs or are too coarse to consider information sources about local conditions and structure-specific engineering knowledge. We formalized the concept of a “minimum assumption credible design” (MACD) to leverage available local information (topography/bathymetry and existing infrastructure) and the essential engineering knowledge and required construction materials (i.e., a design cross-section template). The aggregation of the resources required for individual local structures then forecasts the resource demand for global adaptation projects. We illustrate the application of the MACD method to estimate the demand for construction materials critical to protect seaports from sea-level-rise-enhanced storm surges. We examined 221 of the world’s 3,300+ seaports to calculate the resource requirements for a coastal storm surge protection structure suited to current upper-bound projections of two meters of sea level rise by 2100. We found that a project of this scale would require approximately 436 million cubic meters of construction materials, including cement, sand, aggregate, steel rebar, and riprap. For cement alone, ∼49 million metric tons would be required. The deployment of the MACD method would make resource forecasts for adaptation projects more transparent and widely accessible and would highlight areas where current engineering knowledge or material, engineering workforce, and equipment capacity fall short of meeting the demands of adaptation projects.     

Coastal Ecological Risk Assessment: Its Research Progress and Prospect

Coastal areas are located in marine-terrestrial interlaced zone. With their unique geographical positions, the coastal ecological risk assessment has both the complexity of regional ecological risk assessment and its own particularity. In recent years, due to the coastal economic development and the deterioration of ecological environment, coastal ecological risk has received more and more attention, but there are still lacking in further systematic study about the coastal ecological risk assessment. With the summary and analysis of the existing research results from home and abroad, based on land-ocean interaction plan and full consideration of the uniqueness, regionalism and complexity of the coastal zone environment, this paper made scientific conclusion on the definition of the coastal ecological risk assessment concept and its components from risk source, habitat and risk suffer-the three basic elements. Moreover, from risk source, risk suffer and comprehensive evaluation-the three aspects, it discussed in detail the related research topics, progress as well as main conclusions. Then, it analysed the characteristics and evaluation methods, and put forward the framework model of coastal ecological risk assessment. Finally, it analysed and proposed the existing deficiencies and future research direction, providing new ideas for future research on coastal ecological risk assessment.     

地球系统科学现行研究的最佳切入点——试论海岸带研究框架的创立

地球系统科学是可持续发展战略的科学基础,中国地理学界对这一科学体系的研究受到研究对象庞杂性与研究方法操作困难性的双重制约。海岸带是地球表面陆地、海洋、大气系统的唯一结合部,并因人类对其开发历史的久远而成为研究地球系统、人地关系系统的最佳窗口和切入点。笔者在综合论述了海岸带研究的理论与现实意义之后,创建性地提出了海岸带研究的理论框架。     

广东潮阳沙荒地的改造与开发

广东省潮阳市田心镇农林场自１９５９年起用工程措施和生物措施相结合的方法进行沙荒了的改造及综合利用,在近海边营造木麻黄防护林带,近陆面营造防护林网,网格内种植作物和水果。经多年的实践,筛选出了适生的防护林树种和果树品种。在沙滩地上开展林,果综合利用可提高植物多样性,改变土壤结构和增加肥力,改善小气候,增强防风固沙能力,并伴有较大的经济效益。     

广东省未来十年强震趋势分析

１９９４年９月１６日台湾海峡７．３级地震是７０余年来广东及其近海地区最为突出的地震事件。后续的地震形势如何？本文以东南沿海地区为对象,研究了区内强震活动的时、空、强分布演化特征,综合分析认为,在目前新的地震活跃期中,广东省的强震形势值注意。