4.10 Local - Seagrass and coral in Negril (Jamaica) (feat. Pascal Peduzzi)

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From the course by University of Geneva

Ecosystem Services: a Method for Sustainable Development

98 ratings

University of Geneva

Ecosystem Services: a Method for Sustainable Development

98 ratings

Ecosystem services are a way of thinking about – and evaluating – the goods and services provided by nature that contribute to the well-being of humans. This MOOC will cover scientific (technical), economic, and socio-political dimensions of the concept through a mix of theory, case-studies, interviews with specialists and a serious-game. By the end of this course, our aim is to enable you to: • define the concept of ecosystem services, its principles and limitations • understand the key services associated with any ressource (e.g., fresh water) through readings and case-studies • appreciate the advantages and potential risks of monetising ecosystem services • appreciate the social dimensions (power issues, cultural biases) embedded within any method • integrate tactical advice on mainstreaming this approach into policy and standard government practices • Optional: learn how to map ecosystem services with GIS tools The session that runs May 29th- July 10th will be actively monitored by the instructors, and learners will have the opportunity to ask questions. This course was developed by instructors from the University of Geneva with the help of numerous researchers and input from the Geneva Water Hub and the Natural Capital Project. The course was financed by the University of Geneva, the Global Programme Water Initiatives of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the Luc Hoffmann Institute. This MOOC is supported by the Geneva Water Hub and the University of Geneva along with the MOOC in « Water Resources Management and Policy » (www.coursera.org/learn/water-management) and the one in « International Water Law » (www.coursera.org/learn/droit-eau). We look forward to you joining us!

From the lesson

Module 4: Quantitative and Spatially-Explicit Assessment of Ecosystem Services

Now that you have learned what are Ecosystem Services, as well as their strengths and limitations to be used in the environment policy arena, you should be curious to know how we can in fact monitor, model and predict their values in space and time. In this module, we will explore how existing data (e.g. elevation, climate, land use, remote sensing) can be used to assess Ecosystem Services through mapping and models. We will then see that once we have a model we can predict the outcomes of different scenarios on the value of Ecosystem Services. Scenarios are themselves particularly useful when interacting with various stakeholders, policy and decision makers. In order to illustrate this process, we present four case studies at various spatial scales: global, European, national and local.

4.7 Global - GEOBON essential biodiversity ecosystem services variables (feat. Gary Geller)6:34

4.8 Regional - Black Sea catchment7:20

4.9 National - Germany's ecosystem services maps (feat. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey)5:49

4.10 Local - Seagrass and coral in Negril (Jamaica) (feat. Pascal Peduzzi)9:06

Meet the Instructors

Martin Schlaepfer
Senior Lecturer
Institute of Environmental Sciences
Anthony Lehmann
Associate Professor
Section of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Institute for Environmental Sciences and
Juliet Jane Fall
Professor
Department of Geography and Environment, Geneva School of Social Sciences

[MUSIC]

Hello, I'm Pascal Peduzzi.

I'm the director of GRID Geneva, an office of the United Nations Environment Program.

What I will present today is in this module is a study that we did in Negril,

Jamaica regarding beach erosion.

And most specifically we identify and

quantify the role of ecosystem services for mitigating beach erosion.

It was done in the beach of Negril.

It's in the west of Jamaica.

It's a set of two beaches that together is 30 kilometers wide.

The mandate that we received from the Jamaican government was to discover

why the beach is eroding, how much it is eroding, what are the future trends,

and what can be done to reduce this erosion.

Once it's used to be a very wide beach, but 40 meters or to 60 meters wide.

But through time, it has been eroding to the point that it is now affecting

the local touristic infrastructures such as bar and restaurants.

What is important to know is that in this 10 kilometres of beach, we have 25% of

the hotel rooms of Jamaica, which accounts for about 5 to 6% of the national GDP.

So it is very important for the national economy as well as the very local level.

We have local livelihood.

About 75% of people depends on local livelihood from this tourism industry,

of course, relying on the beach.

So what we wanted to know was what was these drivers.

So the first hypothesis was that it was induced by climate change.

So is it sea level rise?

Is it storm surge from tropical cyclones?

Higher energy of waves?

But there's also locally induced impact,

from decline of ecosystems, or building on the beach.

We were not able to test the building on the beach.

But we tested all the other factors.

So, the study was based on two different tracks.

The RiVAMP methodology is using a set consultations.

The consultations are used to identify the ecosystem services,

to identify the threats from those ecosystems, and

potential solutions to reduce the threats of ecosystem services, and

also to identify the role of different stakeholders.

On the other hand, we have the scientific analysis that we use to

evaluate the status of the beach erosion.

We identify and

quantify the role of ecosystems services in mitigating beach erosion.

And we provide a prognosis for future impacts on sea level rise and

ecosystem decline.

For the consultation, we did that at different level.

We used expert consultation at the national level.

Then we moved on at the local level to consult with the people, the stakeholders,

such as people working in the hotels, in the tourist industry.

We also go the community level in a place called Whitehall and

Little Bay, which are fisherman villager and

suburban area to really have the best of the local community on

why this beach was eroding and what was the understanding of the processes.

On the scientific aspect, we used aerial photography from 1968,

as well as very high resolution satellites imagery 65 centimeters

resolution from QuickBird to look at the beach erosion, as well as classifying

the ecosystems such as the mangroves, the seagrass, the coral.

And we found out that there was up to 40 meters of beach erosion in 40 years.

That's between 0.5 and 1 meter per year for there were a tremendous erosion.

We tested the global factors.

We had a lot of data on those factors.

But we were limited data on decline of ecosystem.

So we have to generate this study.

So to look at the decline of ecosystem, we take this satellite imagery.

We've classified the coastal and

marine ecosystems such as the dense and seagrass, the coral.

We measured the width of these ecosystems in front of 72 sites where

we had the profile underneath the water, the slope on the beach.

And we extracted those parameters to build a table.

And then we also looked at the parameters in terms of erosion for those 72 sites.

So you see this patterns of large erosion to small erosion,

it varies along the coastline.

And we wanted to understand why it was different in some places

versus in other places.

The statistical regression gave us results.

That's the main factors where the decline of ecosystems.

So the seagrass was the main factors and along with slopes and waves.

And it corresponds to 47% of the model.

So we saw that the seagrass was tremendously important.

The coral was even more so important, in fact,

23 times more important than seagrass for blocking the wave energy.

So the fact that the coral declined was a major influence for

this decline that we see on the beach eroding.

The sea line was a status in 1968.

Then it's eroded to the status in 2008.

This is the current status.

And now with the model, we can erase all the ecosystems artificially in our model.

And this red line,

this gives you the possible shoreline if all the ecosystems are removed.

So you see it was very closed to all the hotel infrastructure.

If we move to another place, it's a rather same set-up.

We have now, we can place a graph where we can move and place an isle.

So what would happen to this red line if we remove all the seagrass for example?

And that gives you the next shoreline beach.

And we can also add 1 kilometer of sea grass and

see that the beach would recover.

So the result of RiVAMP was that climate change was only accountable for

9% of beach erosion.

The rest was locally induced by the destruction of coral

through lack of sewage, lack of sediments, more sediment into the water, through

the conversion of the wetland, could be called the Morass into a crop land, and

the daily removal of the seagrass.

The people that come to Negril,

the tourists, they don't like to swim into the seagrass.

They don't like the seagrass.

But the seagrass is essential for the beach.

The beach like the seagrass.

And the tourists, they do like the beach.

So we have to find a way to reconcile how does ecosystems and

the tourist industry can coincide.

So we talked to the other people.

If you want to remove the seagrass and create a pool where people can swim,

that's okay.

But you have to replant seagrass all around and protect the seagrass,

otherwise, which is what they did.

They also rebuild a sewage power plant to reduce the sediments into the water.

So seagrass and corals are providing several services.

They do wave attenuation for shoreline protection.

They provide a habitat for marine biodiversity.

They stabilize the sediments.

They maintain the water clarity.

But if we see all around the island of Jamaica, we have this.

If we remove artificially, we see all these ecosystems are like a security belt.

There's the seagrass and coral all around Jamaica and protecting the shore.

They maintain biodiversity and provide protection from storm-surge.

But they also have aesthetic value and store carbon.

They are good for the tourists because the divers,

for example, they go and they see the coral reef.

So they provide all kind of different services.

So it's a multiple option.

It's a no regret option, in fact.

It's natural, it's cost effective, usually, it's very cheap.

They're easy and can be done with local population.

They require very low, if any, maintenance.

They've got aesthetical value, carbon storage, and so on.

On the other hand, the grey infrastructures also have advantages.

The equations are very well-known.

So we know height or widths that we need.

They don't need to grow.

Well, we need to build them, obviously.

But then, they're directly functional.

And you don't need to retrofit the landcover behind.

So, as opposed to coral, where you need to have a good water quality,

so you need to retrofit in land.

But one thing, sometimes you can't do without the grey infrastructures.

But in this case, it might be good to do a combination of green and grey engineering.

So that you can build on top of the grey engineering, you can regrow coral,

sea grass, and other ecosystems so that in the long term, you restore an ecosystem.

We have several publications.

Feel free to read through.

I will provide the list with this module.

And with that, thank you very much for your attention.

I hope that these local perspectives were useful for this MOOC.

Thank you very much.

[MUSIC]

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