A global analysis of how human infrastructure squeezes sandy coasts

Eva M. Lansu (), Valérie C. Reijers, Solveig Höfer, Arjen Luijendijk, Max Rietkerk, Martin J. Wassen, Evert Jan Lammerts and Tjisse Heide ()
Additional contact information
Eva M. Lansu: Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)
Valérie C. Reijers: Utrecht University
Solveig Höfer: Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)
Arjen Luijendijk: Deltares
Max Rietkerk: Utrecht University
Martin J. Wassen: Utrecht University
Evert Jan Lammerts: Staatsbosbeheer
Tjisse Heide: Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Coastal ecosystems provide vital services, but human disturbance causes massive losses. Remaining ecosystems are squeezed between rising seas and human infrastructure development. While shoreline retreat is intensively studied, coastal congestion through infrastructure remains unquantified. Here we analyse 235,469 transects worldwide to show that infrastructure occurs at a median distance of 392 meter from sandy shorelines. Moreover, we find that 33% of sandy shores harbour less than 100 m of infrastructure-free space, and that 23–30% of this space may be lost by 2100 due to rising sea levels. Further analyses show that population density and gross domestic product explain 35–39% of observed squeeze variation, emphasizing the intensifying pressure imposed as countries develop and populations grow. Encouragingly, we find that nature reserves relieve squeezing by 4–7 times. Yet, at present only 16% of world’s sandy shores have a protected status. We therefore advocate the incorporation of nature protection into spatial planning policies.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-44659-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-44659-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44659-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().