Viola VAN ONSELEN, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Tsung-Yi LIN, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Taiwan has a strong connection with the sea; the island relies on marine sources and has a high diversity of coastal environments with unique habitats. However, these coastal environments face threats such as sea-level rise, coastal erosion, land subsidence and flooding. In response to these risks, diverse coastal defence structures have been established along the coastline, like seawalls, tetrapods and groins. Currently over 50% of the coastline has been ‘hardened’, resulting in degradation of ecosystems, while making them more vulnerable to disasters (1). As a sustainable countermeasure to these challenges, green or Nature-based Solutions gain more awareness on a global scale, due to their high applicability and co-benefits (2,3) The ‘Taiwan Coastal Zone Management Act’ has been implemented in 2015 to promote sustainable coastal management, but so far not many coastal areas in Taiwan are studied in terms of natural engineering approaches or disaster risk reduction through ecosystem management. However, on a small scale, few approaches have been implemented and for this study, three nature-based approaches that are currently realised along the Taiwanese coastline are analysed based on literature review and field studies. These are: coastal tree planting, mangrove planting and sand dune building. Not every approach has been successful; mangroves for example, can reduce wave energy and height, but in some cases they were removed again due to invasiveness in endemic wetland ecosystems (4). Sand dunes form a natural buffer again coastal erosion, but fences that are placed to build up dunes, often lead to oversteepening of the dune profile and result in further erosion. Trees that are planted on top of these dynamic sand dunes, often fail to grow. The lessons learnt from these first steps towards a greener and more sustainable shoreline in Taiwan will be discussed and suggestions for future strategies are proposed.
Mots clés : Taiwan|Coastal Erosion|Disaster risk reduction|Nature-based Solutions
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