Ecological Damage Appraisal of Sea Reclamation:Theory, Method and Application
PENG Ben-rong1, HONG Hua-sheng1, CHEN Wei-qi1, XUE Xiong-zhi1, CAO Xiu-li1, PENG Jing-ping2
Author information+
1. State Key laboratory for Marine Environmental Science, Environmental Science Research Center, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China;
2. Law College, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Half of the world's population,production and consumption activities are concentrated in the coastal zone which accounts for only 10% of all land area.High density population areas have a deficit of space.Coastal human settlements can exploit their position by reclaiming tidal and shallow sea areas through sea reclamation. Sea reclamation by the coast usually means that the sea is filled with earth to create more useful land area.Sea reclamation,however,results in heavy losses to ecosystems of the immediate coastal environment.The coastal ecosystems services such as storing and cycling nutrients, filtering pollutants from inland freshwater systems,protecting shorelines from erosion and storms, regulating global hydrology and climate,accepting and assimilating waste and providing food and materials can be destroyed by the sea reclamation.The value of filled seas as production factors and ecological damage of sea reclamation must be integrated into the decision-making about the planning of sea reclamation to ensure the sustainable use of marine resources. In our paper,we identified the damage to marine and coastal ecosystems of sea reclamation at first,and then established ecological-economic models to estimate the ecological damage of sea reclamation and to assess the value of marine space as production factors to provide sound basis for policy formulation about regulating sea reclamation project.We applied the developed model in Xiamen and found that the values of filled seas for industrial zone and for commercial use were 48.82yuan/m2 and 1 251.4~1 572.04yuan/m2;the value of ecological damage of sea reclamation was 279yuan/m2.The present usage charge standard is so low that it did not include the full costs of sea reclamation and should be modified to 327.82 yuan/m2 for industrial use and 50%~55% of the adjacent land prices for commercial use.