Gaining or losing ground? Tracking Asia's hunger for ‘new’ coastal land in the era of sea level rise

The Case for a Critical Zone Science Approach to Research on Estuarine and Coastal Wetlands in the Anthropocene

“…Rezale et al (2020) demonstrate, for coastal wetlands in New Jersey, USA, that the appropriate management and maintenance of salt marsh vegetation can reduce flooding depths in storm events and significantly reduce property damage in the future, a conclusion also reached by, among others, Highfield et al (2018), Vásquez-González et al (2019) and Montgomery et al (2019). Yang et al (2018b) document the substantial trade-offs that must be accounted for when these systems are allowed to deteriorate and that coastal land reclamation-a process that has been rampant in Asia in general and in China in particular (Sengupta et al 2020)-is particularly deleterious. Regrettably, appropriate management and maintenance are not always prioritized; Peteet et al (2018) note that sediment starvation due to urban development in the New York City area has significantly impeded the resilience of coastal wetlands to sea level rise.…”

“…Examples of human impact on coastal wetlands from the recent literature indicate that the processes of disruption are at once diverse and widespread and include sea level rise (Haywood et al 2020), higher salinities (Yu et al 2019), lower sediment fluxes due to reduced freshwater inflows (Cheng et al 2019), pollution by heavy metals (Ye et al 2020), organic compounds (Tang et al 2020) and microplastics (Zhou et al 2020), the introduction of invasive species (Yang 2019) and habitat loss and fragmentation (Bryan-Brown et al 2020). Land reclamation projects have been especially prominent around the major coastal cities in Asia over the last two decades with considerable impact on coastal wetlands (Hu et al 2018;Sengupta et al 2020). Land is typically reclaimed for economic development but sometimes for coastal protection or even conservation, although there are often unanticipated and highly negative outcomes (Zhang et al 2017;Yang et al 2018b).…”

Fixing a Swamp of Cobras: The Clash between Capital and Water in Shaping Urban Vulnerabilities

“…Critically, vulnerability is not only a function of exposure and sensitivity but also of adaptive capacity in responding to potential impacts (Adger 2006). Yet, the literature grounded in social production of nature has struggled to accommodate the specifics of ecological and biophysical processes (Bakker and Bridge 2006; Castree 2003), while the urban political ecology focus on flood has not considered the significance of the ecological characteristics of land that is targeted for urbanisation beyond recognition of its ecological sensitivity (Sengupta et al 2020). Our interest is in addressing the specifics of the encounter between capital and water‐based landscapes in which the inherent risk of flooding might be expected to act as a disincentive for capital.…”

“…We argue that the nature of land and water matters in shaping the encounter of capital and land (Bakker and Bridge 2006; Castree 2003). The “land reclaimed from lakes, rivers, canals and marshes” (Shatkin 2019:214) and coastal belts (Sengupta et al 2020) have been targeted for urban development in cities of the global South. In addition to the political influence of alliances of state and private developers (Shatkin 2008) and prioritisation of economic development (Sengupta et al 2020), there is a deeper layer to such an alliance, and the targeting of ecologically sensitive land.…”

“…The “land reclaimed from lakes, rivers, canals and marshes” (Shatkin 2019:214) and coastal belts (Sengupta et al 2020) have been targeted for urban development in cities of the global South. In addition to the political influence of alliances of state and private developers (Shatkin 2008) and prioritisation of economic development (Sengupta et al 2020), there is a deeper layer to such an alliance, and the targeting of ecologically sensitive land. Underpinning this encounter is a fundamental clash between the internal logic of capital accumulation and that of water, hydrology and ecology.…”