Green Marine Construction

Abstract

The oceans incorporate three-quarters of the Earth's surface, and most of humanity lives in coastal regions. For example, more than half of the total U.S. population presently lives in coastal areas, and the coastal population is projected to increase by 7 million between now and 2015. Similar projections can be made for other developed countries many of which depend on the coastal zone as a major source of tourism-related income. The long-term ecological health and sustainability of the marine and coastal environments are obviously at risk. Coastal projects such as beach re-nourishment, housing developments, and pipeline , harbor and marina construction can have negative impacts on the coastal environment that must be minimized and often mitigated. Typically, mitigation is done after the fact at considerable expense and often with a questionable return of ecosystem services. However, multiple research projects clearly show that species-specific and lifestage-specific habitat can be designed into artificial structure. Thus, with forethought, coastal construction can include structural designs that are not only ecosystem friendly but which also return ecosystem services impacted by construction. Structure incorporating fish and invertebrate habitat can often be integrated up front at little or no extra construction cost. This paper discusses the results of some of the artificial habitat research as well as recent examples of coastal construction and design that have incorporated these findings.

Biodiversity offsets for offshore wind farm projects: The current situation in Europe

“…The development of marine life would certainly be more likely on a surface with no harmful components, made of a type of concrete more suitable for marine community colonization, for instance with inlaid fragments of shell or with holes for refuges. Instead of pointing out only the positive consequences of turbines and scour protections, the designers of the piles could adapt them more closely to the local flora and fauna [50] [51]. Second, interim losses are usually not taken into account.…”

Settlement of Ostrea edulis is determined by the availability of hard substrata rather than by its nature: Implications for stock recovery and restoration of the European oyster

“…Although low‐density brood‐stock stations and predictive dispersal modelling can overcome restrictions of oyster larval supply in restoration programmes, the availability of shell as a settlement material remains a major limiting factor. Alternative substrate types have been trialled, but success has been variable and the effort to prepare materials has been incredibly time consuming (Pioch , Kilfoyle, Levrel, & Spieler, ). To date, the most successful restoration programmes have incorporated shell cultch into settlement‐site substrates, and include Indian River Lagoon Florida, Chesapeake Bay Maryland, James Island South Carolina and the Billion Oyster Project New York City for Crassostrea virginica and Yerseke Bank in the Netherlands for O. edulis (Krasny, Crestol, Tidball, & Stedman, ; Sawusdee, Jensen, Collins, & Hauton, ).…”

De la conception à l’éco-conception des ouvrages maritimes : intégrer la nature au projet d’aménagement maritime

“…Il a donc été décidé de réaliser d'une part des bétons blancs et d'autre part un béton de couleur rose vif. En effet, plusieurs études (DONG et al, 2010 ;PIOCH et al, 2011) s'entendent sur le fait que les couleurs vives et foncées (rouge, rose, noir) seraient plus efficaces que les couleurs claires et ternes comme le blanc et le gris vis-à-vis de la colonisation. Les deux bétons (BL) et (BLR) ont la même composition, la même texture, et sont placés dans le même environnement.…”

“…b) En deuxième lieu, l'échelle de l'interface entre l'ouvrage et le milieu naturel est également investiguée. Certains chercheurs ont mis en évidence l'importance des propriétés physico-chimiques de surface des ouvrages (TRAN et al, 2012 ;STRAIN et al, 2018) : rugosité (MCGUINNESS & UNDERWOOD, 1986 ;PIOCH et al, 2015 ;COOMBES et al, 2015), porosité (GUILBEAU et al, 2003), couleurs des supports (DONG et al, 2010 ;PIOCH et al, 2011) propriétés chimiques de surface des matériaux (GUILBEAU et al, 2003 ;LEE et al, 2008 ;MANSO et al, 2014). c) Enfin, la question de la composition du matériau en lui-même est à considérer, (ANDERSON & UNDERWOOD, 1994 ;ANDERSSON et al, 2009 ;GIANNANTONIO et al, 2009).…”