The Wadden Sea Region: Towards a science for sustainable development

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe Wadden Sea is one of the largest intertidal areas in the world and has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its unique natural features. Major changes in the morphology and ecology of the Wadden Sea over the past millennium resulted from increasing anthropogenic influences such as coastal protection, land claim from the sea and drainage of wetland for agriculture, exploitation of natural resources from hunting and fishing to the extraction of groundwater, gas and oil, industrialisation at port locations and tourism at the islands. A sustainable future can only be achieved if policy and management are backed by solid science. Many of the anticipated changes result from the upscaling of pressures on the Wadden Sea system. Economic globalization leads to upscaling of fisheries, tourism and industrial activities, and thus to changed pressures on space and nature. Climate change will lead to changes in hydrographic patterns, species distribution and possibly tourism; through sea-level rise it will put pressure on coastal protection and the extent of intertidal areas. Invasions of exotic species will transform the ecosystem. There are three major related challenges to management: 1. Nature conservation in a changing system requires a focus on preservation of the values and not the state of the system; 2. The adaptation of the management structure to the scale increase of the pressures, so that local and regional management becomes better nested in transregional and transnational governance structures; 3. Finally, the management approach needs to deal with increasing uncertainty in external forcing of the system, as well as with nonlinearities in system dynamics when it is pushed outside its normal range of operation. Based on these pressures and management challenges, we advocate an integrated social-ecological systems approach for the scientific study and the science-based management of the Wadden Sea Region. The essential characteristics of this approach are strong interdisciplinarity and a focus on aspects of scale and cumulative processes.

Marine and estuarine fish diversity in the inner Gulf of Nicoya, Pacific coast of Costa Rica, Central America

“…It is known that fishing in estuarine and nearshore environments has clear impacts on the structure and function of these ecosystems (Blaber et al 2000) and, in the Gulf of Nicoya, shrimp trawl fisheries have been one of the most important economic activities since 1952 (Blanco 2007). Fisheries exploitation and increased nutrient loadings strongly affect fish abundance and production in estuaries (Breitburg et al 2009) and a sustainable future within the ecosystem needs improved policy and management decisions that are backed by sound scientific knowledge (Kabat et al 2012). To further protect the entire Gulf ecosystem, additional research into the fish fauna and the distribution pattern of individual species within the Gulf is required.…”

Facing the Third Dimension in Coastal Flatlands: Global Sea Level Rise and the Need for Coastal Transformations

“…Excavating, draining, and blocking sediment deposition by dikes caused polders to sink below the level of the sea. The resultant inverse coastal topography became liable to disaster when fierce storm tides broke feeble dikes, and wadden often took over where once people ploughed their fertile land (Kabat et al 2012). An arms race began.…”

Using a social-ecological systems perspective to understand tourism and landscape interactions in coastal areas

“…Apart from being a nature area, the Wadden area is used for various socio-economic activities such as agriculture, fishing, human settlement, manufacturing, resource extraction, shipping and tourism (Kabat et al, 2012).…”