Sea, Sand and People. An Environmental History of Coastal Dunes

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Managing coastal sand drift in the Anthropocene : A case study of the Manawatū-Whanganui Dune Field, New Zealand, 1800s-2020s

Publication . Sampath, Ruwan D.; Beattie, James; Freitas, Joana Gaspar de

In the Anthropocene, predicted sea-level rise is expected to continue, threating human life and activities along the coast. Dunes play a vital role in providing protection from this threat, aside from the ‘ecosystem’ services that they supply. This article uses scientific, popular and unpublished sources from the nineteenth century and twentieth to examine New Zealand’s largest coastal dune system: the Manawatū-Whanganui dune field. Extending south from Pātea to Paekakariki, it comprises approximately 900 square kilometres. Here, destabilized dunes drifting inland caused social, economic and political problems over the last 150 years. In the nineteenth century, human activities were responsible for setting the dunes in motion. Debates about the matter and attempts to prevent and stop it were then occurring in many parts of the world. Since dunes were a common concern, knowledge and practices were shared and travelled between countries though experts and migrants. The consequences of the solutions implemented and new environmental conditions explain that dunes are still a major issue in the Manawatū- Whanganui region. This article presents a comparative analysis of historical and present- day human responses to dune management to better understand long-term dune drift, its mechanisms and responses. Despite looking at a local case, this study can be extrapolated to dunes worldwide. It shows that holistic management of coastal ecosystems must take into account interdisciplinary analyses of long-term relations between dunes and society. Otherwise, the full picture about the present situation of dunes cannot be apprehended, compromising the implementation of future adaptation measures.

2021-06-29Journal article

Open access

Extending the DPSIR framework to analyse Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response of sand dune management in Manawatu-Whanganui (New Zealand) since the 19th century

Publication . Sampath, Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Ruwan; Freitas, Joana Gaspar de, 1978-; Dias, João Alveirinho, 1947-

Coastal sand dunes are multifunctional landscapes with rich biodiversity. In New Zealand, with the establishment of European settlement around 1840, dunes in the Manawatu-Whanganui region were affected due to the removal of their vegetation cover by human activities and animal grazing. As a result, sand drifted further inland affecting villages, infrastructure and agricultural areas. The main response was to introduce marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) used in Europe to stabilize dunes. This solution caused significant environmental impacts as marram grass turned invasive and native habitats of fauna and flora significantly decreased. This paper focused on the long-term analysis of aspects related to sand dune management in the region during two-time frames: 1) from the 19th to the late 20th century and 2) from then on to the early 21st century, using the innovative spiral DPSIR (Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response) framework. Data for this study comes from historical records, scientific literature and present management reports. The integrated spiral framework allows for establishing the connections between historical and future management initiatives for mitigating and adapting to environmental impacts due to socio-economic drivers and their pressures. The study reinforces the paradigm shift from dune stabilization before the late 20th century to the restoration of stabilized dunes to make them active for enhancing native biodiversity should be again assessed in the context of sea-level rise during this century. Coastal managers should adopt an optimized solution between these two extreme solutions adopted from the 19th century to the present, by considering long-term and interdisciplinary analysis to better understand the systems’ evolution and the full consequences of human actions.

2022Journal article

Open access

Condicionantes naturais e antropogénicas na evolução dos campos dunares transgressivos

Publication . Tudor, Mihaela; Ramos-Pereira, Ana; Freitas, Joana Gaspar de

2019-10-10Conference object

Open access

As Areias da Caparica : Uma história de intervenção humana num sistema praia-duna

Publication . Palma, Monique; Marcelino, Ana; Sampath, Ruwan D.; Dias, João Alveirinho; Freitas, Joana Gaspar de

Um storymap sobre a intervenção humana feita nas dunas da Costa da Caparica, em particular na praia de S. João, a partir do século XIX, com o primeiro levantamento dunar, as experiências de arborização e a construção de um sistema de drenagem. Uma perspectiva de longo prazo sobre a evolução desses ambientes híbridos.

2021-03-31Other

Open access

The encroaching dunes of the portuguese coast

Publication . Tudor, Florentina Mihaela; Ramos Pereira, Ana; Freitas, Joana Gaspar de, 1978

Late Holocene dunes migration is intricately linked to climate change and anthropogenic actions. Along the Portuguese coast, large-scale sand drifts occurred between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, sometimes associated with the Little Ice Age (LIA) period, characterised by long-term cooling across the north Atlantic region. Primary historical sources, coupled with scientific data about paleoenvironmental conditions and OSL ages were used to analyse the spatial and temporal extent of the sand drift occurrences and explore their impact on coastal communities. Covering the period of the past millennium, the study describes the main drivers for drift events in Portugal. The results show the intensification of sand drift episodes after 1500 AD, which can be attributed to both natural forcing factors and human activities (e.g., agriculture and intensive deforestation). It is also clear that human pressure on dunes was dominant after 1800, when dunes fixing strategies through afforestation programmes were seen as the best solution to control sand encroachment. The negative impact of the drift-sands was an important trigger for the management of coastal areas and determinant for the implementation of a set of environmental policies in Portugal. Through a geohistorical perspective, the paper discloses the human-nature interactions over time, and the long-term efforts of governments to control natural processes, contributing to large-scale landscape transformation of the Portuguese coastal dunes.

2022Journal article

Open access