Due to the threat to coastal ecosystems posed by shoreline structures associated with coastal urbanization, Surfrider Foundation Europe is organising to protect European coastlines from the spread of coastal urbanization.
With increasing coastal development pressures – harbor expansions, breakwaters, jetties, seawalls… our coastlines are becoming increasingly urbanised and over-developed. This trend is especially alarming when growth patterns indicate that by 2050 coastal populations are likely to double. If comprehensive measures are not taken to protect natural coastlines and reduce shoreline structures, the anticipated population pressures will increase coastal urbanization and its associated impacts in the near future.
Surfrider Foundation Europe, thanks to its Keepers of the Coast program, is lobbying to effectively change the current pattern of coastal urbanization in Europe.
Coastal ecosystems provide valuable economic and social environmental services for individuals and communities; paradoxically, the attractiveness of this natural heritage renders it vulnerable to degradation from overuse and overexploitation. Protecting our natural heritage through the regulatory framework is a key priority of Surfrider’s actions.
Transformation of the coastal environment from a natural state to an urbanized environment is a one-way process; reversal is difficult and unlikely. For this reason, artificial shoreline structures are one of the main threats to our coastline.
Surfrider Foundation Europe seeks to ensure that coastal development is undertaken with due consideration for environmental values and an avoidance of shoreline structures.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) reports a rapid acceleration of coastal urbanization, essentially due to the residential, recreational and tourism sectors.
The same EEA report confirms that urban development along the Mediterranean coast has created a ‘Med wall effect’; where almost 50% of the coast is dominated by concrete and this trend is increasing.
In addition, approximately two-thirds of European wetlands, mostly coastal, have vanished since the start of the 20th century.
In Europe, the built footprint has increased by 190 km2 per year between 1990 and 2000. This rapid change to the coastal environment has modified the potential viability of coastal ecosystems and Surfrider is concerned that these dramatic changes will have a lasting effect on their fragile equilibrium.
Coastal ecosystems provide a range of free and renewable services to society at large. They include resources in the form of food and energy, cosmetic and health products. In addition, they provide socio-cultural amenities and are the underlying source of the tourism and leisure economy.
Furthermore, undisturbed coastal ecosystems provide important services in the form of natural erosion control and flood protection as well as water quality treatment and sequestration of pollutants.
Our outstanding European coastal environment remains at risk due to its popularity. Demographic and economic changes, increasing quality of life and associated demand for leisure activities – when combined with standard approaches to the commodification of the coastal environment, lead to the spread of shoreline structures and coastal sprawl.
Be the eyes and ears of Surfrider Foundation Europe on the ground by joining our local chapters, or get involved with the Keepers of the Coast program by letting us know about degraded coastlines, shoreline structures and encroaching coastal urbanization that you have witnessed.
