The edge

The ma gazine of CoastNet Au t u m n 2 0 0 7

Coastal cities

US/China Coastal Ecological engineering Climate change and Cultural liaisons

Cities Project of seawalls coastal cities in Tokyo
 Contents
3 Editorial

4 News pages
7
6 Coastal metropolis
Megacities are more often than not coastal.

CoastNet – breathing new

7 From US to China: coastal city challenges and
life into coastal matters prospects for sustainability
Reporting on the Coastal Cities Project and
Autumn 2007
its recent survey assessing public attitudes
Coastal cities towards challenges facing coastal cities in the US
and China.

The edge is a quarterly magazine,

sent out to all CoastNet members.
CoastNet is a sustainable
development organisation, set up
to safeguard the world’s coast and
those coastal communities that
depend upon it for their future. We
work with communities,
government and business to put
sustainable development into
action and believe that the unique
complexity of coastal regions
requires innovative solutions that
reflect a balance between society,
environment, and economy.
Editor: Lesley Smeardon
Lesley.smeardon@coastnet.org.uk
Designed by: Cottier & Sidaway
Printed by: Swan Print
10 Coastal populations, urban sprawl and climate
change
The first study to map urban populations against
the low coastal elevation zone, demonstrating the
extent of urban settlement on the coast.
10
12 Surviving the city – ecological engineering
of seawalls
A research programme that is re-designing
seawalls to improve habitat for intertidal species
and ensure species diversity.
14 Cultural liaisons – the renaissance of
Tokyo Bay
Cultural differences in the interpretation of what
constitutes good coastal management.

Submissions
To submit an article for publication, please
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as a word document. Alternatively, send to 14
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The opinions expressed in the magazine are

not necessarily those of CoastNet.
© CoastNet, 2007

2 The edge Autumn 2007

Editorial
Coastal cities
Coastal management is about managing human activities: containing the
inevitable impact of society, deploying less harmful technologies, and
protecting species and habitats from the carelessness of people.
In today’s high pressure world, not
only is it difficult to keep up with
change, but we have difficult
choices to make as to where our
attention is best focused. One
approach is to focus on areas where
people are mostly concentrated –
where working with people can
have the greatest impact – our
urban cities. In the past 100 years
we have seen urban settlements
grow into vast cities. Today, the
planet’s megacities (those with over
10 million inhabitants) are home to
16 per cent of the entire world
population. By 2020 that is
expected to rise to 30 per cent. And
many of those cities are located by
the coast; of the 10 largest
megacities in the world, seven are
coastal.
One person in 10 worldwide,
including one in eight city-
dwellers, lives less than 10 metres
above sea-level and near the coast –
an ‘at-risk zone’ for flooding and
stronger storms exacerbated by
climate change. By 2050 it is
estimated that over 2.75 billion
(2,750 million) people will be
exposed to coastal threats.
So how do we reach these billions
of people so that we can work
together to improve coastal
resource use? How do we grab their
attention and engage action?
Obviously the risks posed by
coastal flooding provide a powerful
attention grabber, which will
trigger recent memories of the
Asian Tsunami and Hurricane
Katrina. But the issue is not just
about risks to people from the
environment, but also about the
risks people pose for themselves
through their contribution to
environmental degradation. In
CoastNet’s recent conference
Climate Change at the Coast – a very
visible truth we heard about the
complex interactions between
public health and coastal
environmental quality. Natural
resources are being depleted,
natural chemical cycles are being
disturbed and enormous quantities
of waste are being generated,
including toxic chemicals,
radiation and heat. It is this
integrated impact that is leading to
changes in biodiversity and damage
to ecosystem structure and function.
It threatens one of the world’s most
important sources of protein –
seafood – which a billion people
depend on for their main food
source.
Huge challenge though it is, we
must grapple with the complexities
and scale of communicating with
the urban populace as a priority. The
key messages concern interactions –
carbon footprint and environmental
risk; pollution, hydrological cycle,
ecosystem services, such as food
production/human health. We
should endeavour to show how
each individual has a role to play in
lessening the harmful effects of
society on our coastal resources and
on ourselves.
Alex Midlen,
Strategic Director
The edge Autumn 2007 3
N ew s
CoastNet
awarded
BIG Lottery
Small Grant
A BIG Lottery Small Grant
Programme has been awarded to
CoastNet to produce a report on
understanding key environmental
and socio-political drivers in the Gulf
States and North Africa in relation to
coastal management, and climate
change impacts. It plans to network
those involved in coastal
management and provide
communication and information
tools. Practitioners in the region will
then be able to navigate international
and national institutional frameworks
better and work towards better
integration of research, policy and
practice. A written review of
published reports and statistics
undertaken by CoastNet staff will be
available in due course.
For more information contact:
Alex Midlen:
alex.midlen@coastnet.org.uk
Evaluating the Encora Portal
CoastNet is an active partner in the Encora project (www.encora.eu), which aims to coordinate research for coastal
management. We have been particularly busy with an interim evaluation of the Encora Portal, a web-based resource.
What we found out about the
Encora Portal
The Encora Portal incorporates a
content search function, the Coastal
Wiki and is linked to CoastWeb.
After interviewing nearly 50 coastal
scientists, practitioners and policy
makers from all the Encora partner
countries, we found there was much
common ground when it comes to
expectations for the Encora –
Coastal Portal
According to users, we need
comprehensive and quality
information and signposting to
4 The edge Autumn 2007
Scoping study on
potential for sustainable
fisheries
CoastNet has been commissioned to
prepare a scoping study for WWF on
the potential for sustainable fisheries
in the Thames Estuary.
More information contact:
Theresa Redding
theresa.redding@coastnet.org.uk
Marine education
The development of a Marine
Educators Network has been one of
CoastNet’s targets this year. The
initial stage was to collect feedback
from a variety of people involved in
all aspects of marine education. We
are now collating all comments to
feed into the next stage of
development.
To join the network or find out
more details please send an email
to education@coastnet.org.uk
make the portal a real reference for
sharing knowledge and ideas in
coastal management.
In the short term, a number of
actions are already taking place such
as online explanations for users,
making the contact database
editable by users, uploading
relevant documents for each nation.
A total redesign of the website is
also being considered.
To make a real difference we need to
tell others within our organisations
and networks about the Encora
ICZM in the North Sea
Region
CoastNet attended one of the first
meetings for the new EU Interreg IV
programme, to promote a strategic
ICZM project for the North Sea Region.
The workshop, held in Stavanger in
Norway on 20th and 21st August,
considered coastal, marine and
maritime issues of transnational
relevance, with the objective of assisting
in partnership and project development.
See
http://northsearegion.eu/ivb/events/
show/&tid=21 for workshop report
and presentations
CoastNet Conference
programme for 2008
Details of all our conferences will
appear on www.coastnet.org.uk. Next
conference is in London on February
2008 on strategic environmental
assessment.
For more information contact:
Christine Punter:
christine.punter@coastnet.org.uk
project and portal. We also need
coastal organisations to use and
contribute good quality information
to the Wiki or the CoastWeb library.
Keep a lookout for a new checklist:
“tips for promoting encora”, that will
be made available online very soon.
For further information about
contributing contact:
manuela.delosrios@coastnet.org.uk
All evaluation findings can be
found at
www.encora.eu/documents.php
 N ew s
East of England
coastal activity
CoastNet has recently undertaken a scoping study for the East of England
regarding current coastal activity, the national ICZM programme and its
implications for East of England. The study among other things revealed
complex management arrangements: many management bodies with
overlapping responsibilities and jurisdictions, and a wide range of stakeholders.

An executive summary can be found on the CoastWeb library:

http://library.coastweb.info/967/

Also in the news

● China to build the country’s first eco-
city on the coast
China is to start building the country's
first eco-city in the new year and plans
four other radical new urban
developments as it seeks to tackle
pollution. Construction is to start in early
2008 at Dongtan, a development on an
island outside Shanghai where all
energy will be renewable and no petrol-
fuelled cars permitted.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstor
y.cfm?newsid=44223&newsdate=10-Sep-
2007
● Chinese coastal city in top 10 most
polluted places in the world
Coastal city Tianjin, in the Anhui Province
of China which produces about 50 per
cent of the country’s lead has found itself
in the top 10 most polluted places on the
planet for the first time. A lack of
environmental enforcement has resulted
in severe lead poisoning with soil and
homes contaminated at levels 10 to 24
times China’s national standards.
The 10 sites were documented in the
World’s Worst Polluted Places 2007
http://www.planetark.com/index_uk.
cfm
● Belgium to build first zero emission
polar station in the Antarctic
Belgium is to build the first ever zero
emission polar station in the Antarctic,
powered by solar panels and wind
turbines and designed to have minimal
impact on the climate change that is
being studied by its scientists. All waste
will be recycled and fossil fuel will only
be used for back up systems.
http://www.planetark.com/index_uk.cfm
● Coastal oceans most affected by
acid rain
The release of sulphur and nitrogen into
the atmosphere by power plants and
agricultural activities, commonly
referred to as acid rain, plays a minor
role in making the ocean more acidic on
a global scale, but the impact is greatly
amplified in the shallower waters of the
coastal oceans, according to new
research.
http://www.nsf.gov/
● LA ranked most polluted US city
Los Angeles has in 2007 been ranked
the most polluted US city in the nation
for all categories in a recent report.
Other cities ranking among the worst
for smog include several in southern
California, as well as other large coastal
cities of Houston and, New York.
http://www.citymayors.com/environm
ent/polluted_uscities.html
● Typhoon is biggest to hit Tokyo
since 2002
A typhoon that hit Tokyo in August was
the largest to hit since 2002, bringing
down a record rainfall in many parts of
the coastal capital. The typhoon snarled
up transport and power supplies.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsst
ory.cfm?newsid=44237&newsdate=10-
Sep-2007

The edge Autumn 2007 5


Coastal
metropolis
Megacities of the world (10 million+
inhabitants), have soared from two (Tokyo,
New York) in 1950, to 20 in 2005 (UN
Population Division, 2005). And of those
10 largest megacities in the world, seven are
coastal (see Table 1). City coastal living has
never been so popular.
The benefits to settlers of a coastal location
are immense: transport trading routes,
plentiful food and water resources,
Table 1: World’s top 10 largest megacities
City Country
1 Tokyo Japan
2 Mexico City Mexico
3 New York USA
4 Sáo Paulo Brazil
5 Mumbai India
6 Delhi India
7 Shanghai China
8 Kolkata (Calcutta) India
9 Jakarta Indonesia
10 Buenos Aires Argentina
Source: UN Population newsletter, June 2006
Today, however, coastal cities face a hugely
complex task of balancing all those
socioeconomic goals (quality of life,
tourism, ports, transport, housing etc) with
the need to offset the effects of such
development and preserve and conserve
that which has made the coast unique and
desirable in the first place. Pollution,
human health, water management, species
and habitat conservation, planning,
mitigation and adaptation to climate
change are just a few of those challenges. In
this issue of The edge we have looked at four
projects that are grappling with the coastal
city phenomenon.
Assessing public attitudes
towards challenges for
coastal cities
Amy Jaffe reports on the sociologically-
based Coastal Cities Project, currently
working with various research institutions
in China and the US to understand current
public attitudes towards the challenges
facing major coastal cities in both countries
– Page 7
6 The edge Autumn 2007
Webwise – Coastal cities
Worldwide
City mayors and city flooding
www.citymayors.com/environment/flooded_citi
es.html
Cities and oceans
Good general resource
www.thew2o.net/events/cities_oceans
Europe
New Epoc port cities network
international trading, natural
www.new-epoc.net/project-cities
resources to name a few. Add to that
Information, expertise and guidelines related to
the fact that our coastal cities
the regeneration process of port cities.
represent some of the most
culturally-rich and diverse
MEDOCC SPACE Network
settlements in the world and are
www.eukn.org Search ‘MEDOCC space network’
centres, not only of communication,
Promotes a network of coastal cities,
finance and government but also
universities and agencies in Italy, Greece, Spain
creative and artistic magnets, it’s not
and Portugal.
difficult to understand the urban
coastal appeal.
Croatia Coastal Cities Pollution Control Project
www.web.worldbank.org Search under ‘Projects
and operations’
Improving the quality of Croatia’s Adriatic
Coastal/Inland Population, millions coastal waters to meet EU environmental
Coastal 35.2 requirements.
Inland 19.4
Coastal 18.7
Inland 18.3
USA
Coastal 18.2 Urban Coasts Theme Team
Identifying research needs related to urban
Inland 15.0
coasts along US marine and Great Lake waters.
Coastal 14.5
www.usc.edu/org/seagrant/UrbanCoasts/
Coastal 14.3
Coastal 13.2 Coastal Cities Project (see page 7)
Coastal 12.6 www.ruf.rice.edu/~soci/corrul/coastalcities.html
Asia
Climate change
Reducing megacity impacts on the coastal
Gordon McGranahan reports on
environment.
research that for the first time, maps the
Final report from the Unesco project re waste
location of low-lying, coastal urban
management in Jakarta and the Seribu Islands
centres around the world, clearly
www.unesco.or.id/images/pub/publications/20_
highlighting how many of our most
paper6_reducingmegacity.pdf
densely populated cities will be
increasingly threatened by climate
change due to their positioning in the
coastal zone – Page 10.
Australia
Cities project Perth
www.ga.gov.au/urban/projects/nrap/perth_repor
Species diversity
t.jsp
Gee Chapman, reports on research at
Report on completed natural hazard risk
Sydney Harbour which is looking at
assessment project based in metropolitan Perth.
ways to minimise the impacts of
shoreline development on other species
diversity – Page 12.
Urban Stormwater Initiative (USI)
www.environment.gov.au/coasts/pollution/usi/
index.html
Coastal management in Reports from the Initiative tackling water quality
Tokyo Bay in the waterways of major coastal cities by
Steve Fletcher explores some coastal improving stormwater management.
management tensions present in the
largest megacity in the world, Tokyo – Centre for research on ecological impacts of
Page 14. coastal cities (see page 12)
www.eicc.bio.usyd.edu.au/projects/
From US to China: coastal
city challenges and
prospects for sustainability
Whether in New York or Shanghai, coastal cities around the
globe are beginning to recognise the shared problems they
face and the opportunities for joint working. Amy Jaffe, of
the Coastal Cities project at Rice University, Houston
reports on the most recent findings of a joint US/Chinese
survey assessing public attitudes towards the major
challenges facing their coastal cities.

Half of all humanity lives in or close to a
coastal city. Currently over 50 per cent of
Americans in the USA live in coastal
counties, a figure projected to increase to 75
per cent by 2025. In China, it is much the
same. Of its current one billion plus
population, over 55 per cent reside in the
coastal provinces and coastal cities of
Shanghai and Tianjin. But whether in New
York or Shanghai these coastal people will
surely be the ones most severely affected by
some of the 21st century’s most pressing
problems: global warming, violent weather,
dangerous pollution. Now, coastal cities
around the globe are beginning to
recognise that they have much in common
with one another – perhaps more than with
other areas within their own countries.
This has given rise to cross-country coastal
city studies, of which one is currently up
and running at Rice University's Shell
Center for Sustainability. Here, they are
working with various research institutions
in China and the US to assess the particularly vulnerable to the long-term
challenges facing these major, low-lying effects of warming, such as sea-level rise,
estuary metropoles. flooding, air pollution, and severe storms.
In addition, as industrial and commercial
The challenge of climate centres, many such cities are major
contributors in their own right to high
change
levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
therefore face the prospects of greater
Change (IPCC) has concluded that the
regulation and economic dislocation.
global mean sea level has risen at an
average rate of 1 to 2 mm during the 20th
The challenges facing the world’s largest
century with a further projected rise of 0.05
coastal cities are very worrisome, notes Rice
to 0.32 m between 1990 and 2050.
University sociologist Michael Emerson
Populations that inhabit small islands or
who is leading the study. “As populations
low-lying coastal areas, according to the
of these industrialised coastal cities rise
IPCC, “are at particular risk of severe social
dramatically through immigration, policy
and economic effects from sea level rise and
leaders are going to have to address
storm surges.”
worsening environmental conditions and
social dislocations stemming from rapid
Given the reality of global warming, coastal
demographic changes,” Michael Emerson
populations around the world will face
points out. “This is on top of the looming
severe challenges to their sustainability in
challenge being posed by severe storms.”
the decades to come. Coastal cities are

The edge Autumn 2007 7

Public attitudes towards climate change, but in their initial survey The coastal cities under study face
research, the Rice University coastal cities rapidly-growing populations, with the
coastal challenges
group found that 70 per cent of Chinese associated increases in energy demand
The Shell Center for Sustainability at Rice
respondents and over 75 per cent of and human footprints and impacts
University has begun a research
Americans believed that sea level rise did including air and water pollution,
programme on coastal cities which seeks to
not pose a serious problem for their city. In increased greenhouse gas emissions, and
assess the dimensions of the challenges
contrast, a substantial majority of run-off wastes. Sustainability and the
facing major, low-lying estuary metropoles.
respondents from the same cities believed prospect for future growth for such
In its first phase, the study focuses on
that air pollution was a very serious coastal cities may therefore depend on
major US and Chinese coastal cities with a
challenge and were concerned about the greater regulation of production systems,
large petrochemical industrial base,
effects of air pollution on their families’ energy resources, and standards for health
including Houston, Los Angeles, New York,
health. and environmental impact. The vast
Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen. Initial
research activities included the majority of Americans and over half of
Even in the face of the recent hurricanes, the Chinese respondents supported
development of a comprehensive and fully
Rita and Katrina, only 33 per cent of tighter environmental controls on urban
comparable survey of public attitudes and
Americans considered severe storms and development.
beliefs, conducted jointly in the United
flooding to be a serious challenge for their
States and China. In all, 3,000 adults were
municipality while it was over 40 per cent In assessing the prospects for such
surveyed, 500 from each coastal city.
for the Chinese respondents. More than 80 regulation and for the development of
per cent of the Americans surveyed believed grassroots movements, the research also
Science and public opinion converge to
that normal activities, such as driving cars measured the reported participation of
intimate that important challenges face
and running air conditioners contribute to citizens in pro-environmental behaviours
these coastal petro-economies. Their
harming the environment, but this was the and found that only a small number of
geography makes them particularly
case for only 56 per cent of the Chinese. respondents had actively participated in
vulnerable to the long-term effects of

Five problems endemic to coastal cities

FLOODING
The increase of extreme weather events is
likely to intensify existing water and
control problems in many coastal
megacities. The concreting and channeling
of surface water has increased problems of
run-off and flooding while increased
salinity will likely become a problem in
coastal aquifers and estuarine systems,
threatening coastal agriculture, industrial
plants and potable water systems. Existing
structural solutions such as levies, bayous,
and barriers and protection will need to be
supplemented or replaced by non-
structural flood alleviation strategies and
flood plain management policy.
SEVERE STORMS
Global warming specialists predict that the
occurrence of severe storms will increase
in the coming decades. Warming ocean
temperatures and sea level rise will make
coastlines in our densely populated coastal
cities particularly vulnerable in the future.
AIR POLLUTION
Coastal cities tend to attract industrial
plants and petrochemical industries
because of their excellent access to ports.
This creates special challenges for
regulating air quality, as seen in many US
coastal cities, including Los Angeles,
Houston, and New York, where air quality
remains a major challenge. In China, nearly
45 per cent of cities being monitored
(numbering more than 300) for air
pollution couldn’t attain national ambient-
air-quality standards.

8 The edge Autumn 2007

community environmental projects while The geography of coastal cities, such
a majority said they had purchased as New York and Shanghai pictured
household appliances based on their
here, makes them particularly
environmental qualities such as energy
vulnerable to the long-term effects of
efficiency. Americans were far more likely
to say that they had avoided buying or climate change. But initial findings
using environmentally-damaging products from the coastal cities research,
than the Chinese respondents. Level of discovered that 70 per cent of
education appeared to be a factor in Chinese respondents and over 75 per
increasing the likelihood of American
cent of Americans believed that sea
participation in pro-environmental
activity, whereas the opposite was true in level rise did not pose a serious
China. Upwardly mobile, more educated problem for their city.
Chinese were less likely to report
participation in pro-environmental
activity than their less educated
counterparts.

Researchers from Rice University plan to

analyse the survey data to develop specific
studies to explain the incidence with
which individuals report participating in
actions that assist the sustainability of the
environment. These behaviours include:
support for public policies designed to
reduce global warming, joining
environmental groups and working with
others and engaging in personal
behaviours that support and sustain the
environment (eg, using mass transit,
purchasing environmentally-friendly
consumer products). Additional research
will focus on how best to organise
government for implementing policies
designed to sustain and improve the
environment.

The goal of the Rice University Coastal

Cities programme is to foster international
dialogue and cooperation in finding
solutions to the major challenges of
sustainable development for the world’s
largest coastal cities. It is hoped that the
programme will be expanded over time to
include other important international
cities in Latin America and elsewhere.

About the project

CONGESTION
Population density in coastal cities is
expected to rise significantly in the coming
decades leading to massive congestion
along crowded roadways. Congestion
already causes more than 3.7 billion hours
of travel delay each year in the US,
according to the Texas Transportation
Institute with the figure continuing to
increase year on year. In China, it is much
the same with the daily traffic volume in
Beijing growing by 20 per cent a year.
Holistic design will be a major tool to
alleviate growing congestion problems in
coastal cities.
ETHNIC TENSION
With increasing coastal city populations
and a continuing influx of immigrants to
port communities in search of jobs, the
complexities of local racial and ethnic
relations increases. Coastal cities will need
to find ways to manage growing diversity,
minimise harmful conflicts, harness the
positives that come from population
dynamism, and concentrate on quality
education for all children. Doing so will
require extensive cooperation across
people groups.
The project is a research partnership
between the Shell Center for
Sustainability, the Center on Race,
Religion and Urban Life (CORRUL), the
Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice
University, and Horizon Survey Research
of Beijing in China in relationship with
Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences
(SASS) and other Chinese institutions.
For a copy of the survey and more
information about the study visit
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~soci/corrul/coast
alcities.html
Amy Jaffe is Project Coordinator of the Coastal
Cities Project at Rice University, Houston
Michael Emerson is Principal Investigator of
the Coastal Cities Project

The edge Autumn 2007 9

Coastal populations,
urban sprawl and
climate change
10 metres in altitude) only accounts for
The mapping of low-lying about two per cent of the world’s land area,
areas, many of which are also susceptible to
subsidence, and already have large
but contains 10 per cent of the total
coastal urban centres population, and 13 per cent of the urban
populations at risk from storm surges.

population. Figure 1: Ten countries with largest

around the world, clearly populations in the Low Elevation Coastal Zone
As illustrated in Table 1, about two-thirds of
highlights how many of the population in this zone is in Asia. But
160
140
even in Africa, with only one per cent of its
our urban cities will be

,000 people in zone

120
land in the zone, and a comparatively high 100
share of the population engaged in
increasingly threatened agriculture, still 12 per cent of the urban
80
60
population live in the zone.
by climate change and 40
20
While the small island states have by far the
points to an urgent need 0
na

a
esh

m
ia
an
pt
U S A

d
ines
largest share of land in the zone, their
I ndi

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nes
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ipph
population percentages are not exceptional.
for mitigation and

T ha
V ie
I ndo
B an

adaptation policies.
By Gordon McGranahan, Deborah Balk
and Bridget Anderson
Coastal settlement is both environmentally
damaging and environmentally vulnerable.
Climate change, which will bring sea level
rise and greater storm intensity, amplifies the
risks of coastal settlement. Yet coastal zones
are densely settled and growing rapidly.
The low elevation coastal zone (LECZ –
defined as contiguous coastal land less than
This is in part because some of the most
populous small island states have
comparatively little settlement in the low
elevation areas, but is also because small
island states do not have large rivers,
creating flat and fertile deltas.
Regional averages hide considerable
national variation, and the 10 countries
with the most people living in the zone
(Figure 1) together account for about 463
million people, or about 73 per cent of the
people who live in the zone globally. These
countries are generally populous, and
contain large and densely populated delta
P hil
Figure 2 shows countries with the highest
population shares in the zone (excluding
those with total populations of less than
100,000 or land areas less than 100 square
kilometres). Three of these: Vietnam,
Bangladesh and Egypt, are also among the
countries with the largest overall
populations in the zone.
Figure 2: Ten countries with highest population
shares in the Low Elevation Coastal Zone
100
90
population share in zone, %

80
Table 1: Population and Land Area in Low Elevation Coastal Zone by Region – 2000
70
60
Shares of region’s population and land in LECZ 50
40
Region Total Urban Total Urban 30
population population land land 20
(%) (%) (%) (%) 10
0
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Africa 7 12 1
out
ama
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G am
G uy
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Asia 13 18 3
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B an

T he
N et

Europe 7 8 2 7
Latin America 6 7 2 7
All but two of the countries are of low or
Australia and New Zealand 13 13 2 13
lower-middle income, a concern from a
North America 8 8 3 6
vulnerability perspective. This is
Small Island States 13 13 16 13
somewhat surprising, given that urban
World 10 13 2 8 settlements are generally more coastal

10 The edge Autumn 2007

than rural, and it is more wealthy countries
that are more urban.
In the world as a whole, but most notably in
Asia, not only are urban populations more
likely to be in the LECZ than rural
populations, but larger urban settlements
are more likely to overlap with the LECZ
than smaller urban settlements. While only
13 per cent of urban settlements with
populations under 100,000 overlap with the
LECZ, this rises to 65 per cent among cities
of five million or more. Of the 10 largest
cities identified in 2005 by the United
Nations, seven (Tokyo, New York, Mumbai
(Bombay), Shanghai, Kolkata (Calcutta),
Jakarta and Buenos Aires) extend into the
zone. Indeed, about 55 million people in
these cities and their contiguous urban areas
live in the zone. Perhaps even more striking,
of the 183 countries with people living in
the LECZ, 130 have their most populous
urban area extending into the zone.
Continued urbanisation is in danger of
drawing still greater populations and
population shares into the low elevation
coastal zone. In China, where export-driven
economic growth has been associated with
very rapid coastal migration, national
population growth between 1990 and 2000
was approximately one per cent, while
growth in the low elevation coastal zone
was 1.9 per cent, and of urban populations
in the zone was 3.4 per cent. Even in
Bangladesh, where urbanisation is not so
BANGLADESH: Bay of Bengal Coastal Region
Urban Extents, by Population Size, 2000
5K-100K 100K-500K 500K-1Mil 1Mil-5Mil
Low Elevation Coastal Zone (LECZ) Administrative Boundaries (Thana)
NOTE: LECZ layer has been made semi-transparent to
show the underlying layers. Thus the blue colour is not uniform.
BANGLADESH: Bay of Bengal Coastal Region
Urban Extents, by Population Size, 2000
5K-100K 100K-500K
Low Elevation Coastal Zone (LECZ)
NOTE: LECZ layer has been made semi-transparent to
show the underlying layers. Thus the blue colour is not uniform.
Climbing coastal city populations
● The LECZ accounts for two per cent ● Of the 10 largest cities in the world,
of the world’s land area but seven extend into the coastal zone –
contains 13 per cent of the urban amounting to 55 million people.
population. ● 183 countries have people living in
● Worldwide, urban populations are the LECZ – 130 of those have their
more likely to be in the LECZ than most populous urban area extending
rural populations. And it is the into the zone.
larger urban settlements (those ● In China national population growth
with populations over 100,000) that between 1990 and 2000 was
are the most likely to extend into approximately one per cent, while
the coastal zone growth of urban populations in the
LECZ was 3.4 per cent.
clearly a driver, movements towards the
coastal zone are evident, with a total Information contained in this article is
population growth rate of 1.2 per cent, summarised from Gordon McGranahan,
growth in the zone of 2.1 per cent and Deborah Balk and Bridget Anderson
growth in the urban population in the zone (2007), ‘The rising tide: assessing the
of 2.8 per cent. risks of climate change and human
settlements in low elevation coastal
Looking to the future, responses to the zones’, Environment and Urbanization,
growing risks in coastal settlements Vol 19, No 1, pages 17-37.
brought on by climate change will need to
include each of the three Ms – mitigation, Dr Gordon McGranahan is at the
migration and modification – all of which International Institute for Environment
have a long lead-time. Low income groups, and Development, London. Deborah
who often settle the flood plains, are most Balk is at Baruch College, City
at risk. These same groups are most at risk University of New York. Bridget
from hastily constructed government Anderson is at the New York City
policies. All this points to the need for Department of Sanitation
timely action – starting now.
Methodology
This study integrates recently-developed spatial databases of
finely resolved global population distribution, urban extents,
and elevation data to produce country-level estimates of urban
land area and population in LECZ (low elevation coastal zones).
By overlaying geographic data layers, the population and land
area in each country, in its LECZ are calculated and summarised
5Mil+ by country, region, and economic grouping. Shuttle Radar
Topography Mission (SRTM) data was used to delineate a LECZ
including land area contiguous with the coast up to 10 metres in
elevation. Urban extents were taken from Columbia University’s
Center for International Earth Science Information Network’s
Global Rural Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP). These urban
extents were primarily delineated using NOAA’s night-time
lights satellite data (city lights 1994-95), and represent urban
agglomerations including surrounding suburban areas.
Population and land area were also taken from GRUMP. All data
are expressed at 1km resolution. Figure 3 illustrates, for the Bay
of Bengal region of Bangladesh, the data layers with which the
calculations were made.
For access to the data and related publications, see:
http://sedac.ciesin.org/gpw/lecz.jsp
500K-1Mil 1Mil-5Mil 5Mil+
Administrative Boundaries (Thana)
Figure 3: Map of Bangladesh identifying low elevation coastal zone
and urban extents
The edge Autumn 2007 11
Surviving the city
Cities may be vibrant and culturally-diverse places to live for people, yet increasing urbanisation
can have profound effects on other species diversity. Shoreline development remains
inevitable but are there ways to minimise its impact? Gee Chapman, Professor of
Marine Ecology at the University of Sydney discusses a new research
programme that is re-designing seawalls in favour of intertidal
species in and around Sydney Harbour.
As the human population increases, so do
the number and sizes of cities across the
world. Urbanisation has major impacts on
environments, with loss and fragmentation
of habitat, changes in diversity of species
and increasing levels of contamination
causing concern throughout the world.
What has largely been ignored until
recently is the effects of urbanisation and
coastal development on marine, in contrast
to terrestrial, habitats. Most research has
focused on resource extraction (primarily
seafood) or effects of pollution but there
has also been considerable intertidal
habitat loss associated with urbanisation,
with concern generally limited to vegetated
habitats such as wetlands, coastal marshes
and mangrove forests.
The creation of artificial
habitats
Some of the major changes to intertidal
areas in urbanised areas are due to the
proliferation of built structures, such as
vertical walls, pontoons, bridges and
wharves. These replace natural habitat
producing unusual environmental
conditions (eg continuously deeply shaded
areas) and creating novel habitats (eg large
floating structures). Nevertheless, many
species do live on or around artificial
shorelines, leading to some level of
complacency about their environmental
impacts. Our research programme not only
looks at the effects of replacing natural
shores with artificial habitats, particularly
intertidal seawalls, but, more importantly,
trials different methods of building walls to
evaluate ways which may support greater
diversity of intertidal species.
Early work in the programme has shown
that intertidal assemblages living on
12 The edge Autumn 2007
A
seawalls in Sydney Harbour (Australia) are
different from those living on or nearby
natural rocky shores. Research has also
identified types of organisms that are least
likely to be found on the walls, including
rare species dependent on particular
habitats absent from vertical walls (eg rock-
pools or the undersurfaces of boulders), and
many animals that are common and
widespread on rocky shores, such as sea
urchins, starfish and many species of coiled B
snails. Many of these organisms interact in
ways that are important in structuring the
assemblage, eg grazing animals that prevent
seaweeds from monopolising space, or
predatory animals that control numbers of
barnacles and other sessile animals.
A better design for greater
diversity
Research is now focussing on building C
seawalls in such a way to provide ‘better’
habitat to support a wider range of species
than are normally found on vertical,
featureless walls. It considers three major
ways that seawalls differ from natural
shores.
1 Most natural rocky shores in and around
Sydney Harbour are very gently sloping
(almost horizontal), whereas seawalls are
vertical or very steeply sloping. Slope is
known to affect diversity of intertidal D
and subtidal animals and plants.
2 Changing from a gently- to a steeply-
sloping substratum reduces available
intertidal area from many tens of metres
across to about two metres, depending
on local tidal effects and wave-action. It
is known that species diversity is
strongly related to area of available
habitat, but this small area also crowds
together species that are normally Figure 1 Building novel habitats into seawalls:
widely spaced apart in natural habitats. (A) creating small holes and crevices
(B) creating pools using sandbags during repairs
(C) custom-made intertidal pools
(D) a large rock-pool in the top of the wall.
3 Major habitats (pools, deep crevices, when the bag is removed. More upmarket research relatively pristine or undeveloped
overhangs, boulders) that are important than this has been a large programme of areas, but also to understand the ecological
to some species on rocky shores, are custom-made pools at different levels at impacts of urbanisation and how best to
missing from seawalls. multiple sites in a newly created wall conserve the species in highly altered and
(Figure 1C) and a large intertidal pool built impacted areas. We cannot stop shoreline
Reducing slope, into the top of a seawall (Figure 1D). development in our coastal cities. Instead,
we need to understand the ways this
increasing area
Although results from this relatively new development might proceed to minimise
The programme is now trialling different
research programme are still preliminary, its impact. Such work requires interactions
ways of building walls to change the slope
habitats such as these do appear to be used among planners, developers, managers,
of the wall and/or to add additional
by many species not normally found on engineers and ecologists – an interaction
habitats to the wall, thanks to an ARC
most seawalls, thus increasing the range of that is proving very fruitful.
Linkage Grant. To reduce slope and
species that can use these artificial
increase area we have created gently-
structures as habitat. Gee Chapman is Professor of Marine
sloping walls using stacked boulders which
Ecology at the University of Sydney and
are not cemented together to replace
vertical mortared walls that create a flat Conclusion Deputy Director of the Centre for
People are not simply going to stop living Research on Ecological Impacts of
featureless surface. These new walls have
in coastal cities and large towns, and as a Coastal Cities.
horizontal and vertical surfaces, with
shaded crevices between adjacent boulders. result alterations to shorelines to aid
transport will always be inevitable. The more information:
We have similarly built a stepped wall, with
need now is for ecologists to not only www.eicc.bio.usyd.edu.au
alternating vertical and horizontal surfaces,
to replace a vertical wall. Although these
cannot mimic natural shores, they provide
Circular Quay, Sydney Harbour, Australia.
additional intertidal area and both vertical
and horizontal surfaces which are each used
by different components of the assemblage.

Creating additional habitats

Most of the research is focused on
providing additional habitats to the surface
of the wall itself. At the simplest level,
these include small holes and crevices in
the face of the wall and crevices between
adjacent blocks (Figure 1A). The holes have
not been particularly successful, but the
crevices between blocks increased
occurrences of many seaweeds and sessile
animals, such as sponges, bryozoans and
ascidians. At a larger scale, we have created
larger pools into the face of the wall by
using sandbags to mimic blocks while walls Shoreline alterations to aid transport are inevitable in coastal cities. The
are being built or repaired (Figure 1B). challenge for ecologists, engineers and developers is to understand ways to
These create small pools that retain water minimise it’s impact.

The edge Autumn 2007 13

Cultural liaisons
The renaissance of Tokyo Bay
An exchange programme between coastal management practitioners and academics from
the UK and Japan has highlighted cultural differences in the interpretation of what
constitutes good coastal management. Dr Steve Fletcher, from Bournemouth University,
looks East in search of answers.

Tokyo is by far the largest city in the world
with an estimated population of around 35
million (UN Population stats 2005). So large
is this figure, that in 2005, the world’s
number one megacity could actually boast
more residents than the entire country of
Kenya (34 million). Undoubtedly the city’s
growth and fortunes have been helped by
the huge natural resources and maritime
positioning of Tokyo Bay.
land, and major infrastructural
developments, such as the Aqualine road
bridge and tunnel linking the east and west
sides of the Bay. Combined with these
pressures are management systems that
emphasise traditional resource management
arrangements, limited opportunities for
stakeholder involvement, and a reliance on
government to take the lead in key policy
and decision-making processes.
exchange visits with the benefits of each
visit shared with a wider audience at a
seminar held in each country.
Having been part of the UK delegation to
Tokyo, two key projects from the city
served to underline some very fundamental
cultural differences discovered between the
two countries as to coastal site
conservation.

Tokyo Bay has, in turn undergone
considerable built development around its
perimeter, particularly during the post-war
period in which Japan experienced
considerable economic success. This has
included the expansion of the urban areas
of both Tokyo and Yokahama, reclamation
of large areas of inter-tidal and sub-tidal
With a very different national and urban
context than the UK, an exchange
programme was set up in the hope that
coastal management professionals in both
countries would gain inspiration, ideas and
solutions through seeing how others work
and practice their profession. The
programme consisted of two learning
Renaissance of Tokyo’s
waterfront
As a result of the large scale reclamation of
much of the perimeter of Tokyo Bay, the
urban waterfront of Tokyo itself is entirely
artificial. Much reclamation has taken the
form of small islands separated by narrow
channels of open water. The resultant

14 The edge Autumn 2007

The regeneration of Tokyo’s canals, while primarily driven
by social factors, has also incorporated environmental
improvements, such as species re-establishment and
habitat creation.
waterfront is effectively a network of
urbanised canals.
In recent years the value of the canals as an
attractive waterfront area in its own right
has been recognised and steps taken to
clean up the area in terms of its aesthetics
and environment through the Bay
Renaissance Project. Much investment has
been focused on this area and it now hosts
waterfront walks, cafes and bars, new
businesses (including marine training and
education agencies) and is an urban safe
and attractive place to visit.
With little public or NGO pressure for
coastal conservation in Japan, however,
efforts to improve the environmental
quality of the canals, which during the
post-war period became polluted and
depleted of native species of fish and
plants, has been difficult. With a general
lack of awareness among the public and
government of the need to conserve coastal
sites and the notion of ICZM not
prominent, the environment has often
been seen as one to be exploited, rather
than conserved. However the Bay
Renaissance Project has sought to engage
with local communities, largely through
the involvement of children in local
schools, to improve environmental
conditions. With school children involved
in habitat creation and monitoring of
species numbers, artificial habitats are now
being created as spawning grounds for
native fish to encourage their re-
establishment.
Coastal conservation and
education
Over 95 per cent of the coast of Tokyo Bay
has been physically altered and immense
areas of tidal flats reclaimed. This places
The huge Aqualine road bridge and tunnel, completed in
1998, now links the east and west sides of Tokyo Bay.
particular significance on the remaining
tidal flats as both conservation sites and
educational resources. Despite the paucity
of ‘natural’ sites around Tokyo Bay,
conservation legislation is very weak and at
present the largest area of tidal flats
anywhere around the Bay remains
undesignated as a conservation site.
The general lack of awareness among the
public of the need to conserve coastal sites
remains and educational facilities have now
been established in the form of a well
resourced and staffed study centre.
However, the centre primarily focuses on
providing educational experiences with a
coastal theme for students from visits from
schools; it is not focused on public
education or interpretation. There is,
therefore, a continued lack of opportunity
for the residents of Tokyo Bay to access
coastal space and learn about coastal issues.
During the exchange visits, the two country
teams demonstrated very different reactions
to the issue of conservation. For the UK
team, it was amazing that the Tokyo Bay
tide flats were not protected. The Japanese
team, however were equally amazed that so
much of the UK coast was protected. A
country’s cultural values can create very
different attitudes towards conservation in
a general sense.
The cultural context
Tensions evident in the two examples above
relate to how nature and the coast
specifically are considered within society. It
is helpful to consider this by noting the
differences and similarities between coastal
management in the UK and Japan. Both
have a plethora of legislation that makes
managing coastal space a complex process
and both have highly pressured coastal
areas and limited land area available. In
contrast, the UK has an established
stakeholder involvement culture that seeks
to influence coastal planning and
management decisions from local to
national levels. This is almost entirely
absent in Japan with public or stakeholder
“ It was amazing to the
UK team that the Tokyo Bay
tide flats were not
protected. It was equally
amazing to the Japanese
team that so much of the
”
UK coast was protected.
involvement very restricted, limited NGO
activity, and little demand for
involvement. Instead, many coastal
conflicts are resolved through
compensation imposed by government.
The key underlying difference is one of
society and culture, particularly in relation
to the role of the state in resource decisions
which in Japan is comparatively centrally
dominated.
On a wider note, the applicability of
sharing experiences between countries
should therefore only be considered in a
context that is sensitive to prevailing
cultural differences. Cultural expectations
of what coastal management should be and
what constitutes the right management
interventions were both challenged in this
exchange programme. The role of culture
in how coasts are managed, is perhaps far
more significant than previous research
focus has indicated.
The edge Autumn 2007 15

CoastNet emails:
Alex Midlen; alex.midlen@coastnet.org.uk
Theresa Redding; theresa.redding@coastnet.org.uk
Lesley Smeardon; lesley.smeardon@coastnet.org.uk
Manuela de los Rios; manuela.delosrios@coastnet.org.uk
Christine Punter; christine.punter@coastnet.org.uk
Events; events@coastnet.org.uk
General; admin@coastnet.org.uk
This publication is partially funded
through the Corepoint project under
the Interrreg 3B Programme. Corepoint
aims to establish North West Europe
as an internationally recognised
region of excellence in coastal
management by encouraging full
implementation of ICZM, highlighting
best practice, providing education by
influencing national spatial policies –
for further details please see
http://corepoint.ucc.ie