THE ROLE OF MARINE ECOSYSTEMS IN HAZARD MANAGEMENT

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The Role of Marine
Ecosystems
in Hazard Management
Coastal Planning for Disaster Management Seminar
June 30th,2006
Angelique
Brathwaite
Marine Biologist
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CZMU
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NATURAL DISASTERS

• Marine and coastal ecosystems act as natural
  buffers
• Loss of natural buffers turns natural events into
  human disasters
• At least 70-90 of the energy from wind
  generated waves is absorbed depending on how
  healthy these ecosystems are and their physical
  and ecological characteristics
• (UNESCO State of the Worlds Oceans Report)

Coastal Planning for Disaster Management Seminar
June 30, 2006
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NATURAL BUFFERS
Coastal Planning for Disaster Management Seminar
June 30, 2006
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CORAL REEFS NATURAL BREAKWATERS

• Allow waves to dissipate 70-90 of their
  destructive energy offshore
• Area covered by
• Bank reefs 15.9 km
• Fringing reefs 1.53 km
• Approx. 80 fringing reefs lost
• Bank reefs decreased from 37.3 - 23.2 over a
  decade

Coastal Planning for Disaster Management Seminar
June 30, 2006
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ANTHOPOGENIC STRESSORS
Anchor damage
Tourism pressure
Land based sources of marine pollution
Harvesting for sale
Destructive fishing
Coastal Planning for Disaster Management Seminar
June 30, 2006
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MANGROVES NATURAL SHOCK ABSORBERS

• Buffers
• Limit floodwater inundation
• Mangroves covered almost our entire coastline
• Destroyed approx. 95
• Primarily via coastal construction

Replaced by
Coastal Planning for Disaster Management Seminar
June 30, 2006
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RUBBLE, SEA GRASS, BEACH, DUNES

• Not much help in a major disaster
• BUT
• can offer some protection against wave action

Coastal Planning for Disaster Management Seminar
June 30, 2006
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ASIA TSUNAMI EXCERPTS

• Human destruction played a significant role in
  the damage caused by the tsunami in Asia
• When seismic waves struck Indias Tamil Nadu,
  areas with dense mangroves suffered fewer
  casualties and less damage to property than those
  minus barriers
• Places that had healthy coral reefs and intact
  mangroves were far less badly hit than places
  where the reefs had been damaged and mangroves
  ripped out and replaced by beachfront hotels and
  prawn farms (Simon Cripps, Director of WWFs
  Global Marine Programme for India)

Coastal Planning for Disaster Management Seminar
June 30, 2006
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s

• WWF estimates that coral reefs provide US 9
  billion annually in economic benefits associated
  with coastal protection
• The Maldives spent 10 million per km to install
  artificial breakwaters to protect shores after
  the natural reef was degraded. (Agence
  France-Presse)

Coastal Planning for Disaster Management Seminar
June 30, 2006
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• Education programmes and early warning systems
  will significantly reduce the number of human
  casualties, but it will only be through careful
  coastal and land-use planning that the economic
  and social costs of such disasters can be kept to
  a minimum
• Isabelle Louis, Director of WWF Internationals
  Asia-Pacific Programme.

Coastal Planning for Disaster Management Seminar
June 30, 2006
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• HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS
• SAVE LIVES!

Coastal Planning for Disaster Management Seminar
June 30, 2006