Coastal Development: Construction of a Public Policy for the Shores and Seas of Mexico

doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-810473-6.00003-0

Coastal Management

Global Challenges and Innovations

2019, Pages 21-38

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-810473-6.00003-0 Get rights and content

Abstract

Clearly stated during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in chapter 17 of “Agenda 21” and reinforced recently in the new Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the United Nations Development Program, oceans, seas, coast, and marine resources need to be properly managed for the future. Mexico possesses 11,122 km of coastline, shared among 17 coastal states with a total population of 55.4 million people (46% of the Mexican total population). The gross domestic product (GDP) emanating from the coastal states represents 40% of the national GDP and is mainly derived from industry, commerce, and services activities. Also, Mexican beaches are internationally recognized for their natural beauty. However, massive tourism, the high rate of resort development, environmental degradation and destruction, biodiversity loss, chaotic urban growth, pollution, sectorial conflicts, and the lack of public policies and programs at the local level increase the risk and vulnerability of the coastal environment. Three independent levels of government operate in Mexico: federal, state and municipal, each one with its own responsibilities and operative limitations defined by the Mexican Constitution. At the federal, state and municipal levels, several regulations are related to coastal management. The superposition and/or lack of specific regulatory tools creates a complex and sometimes chaotic framework for the development of coastal management initiatives. In recent years, a large effort has been undertaken at the federal level to solve this critical issue by creating the National Strategy for Ecological Ordinance of Seas and Coasts (SEMARNAT, 2006a), the National Environmental Policy for the Sustainable Development of Oceans and Coasts of Mexico (SEMARNAT, 2006b) and finally, the most comprehensive and integrated framework, the National Policy for Seas and Coasts (CIMARES-SEMARNAT, 2016). Despite these efforts, Mexico still lacks a specific “coastal law” that promotes the creation, implementation, and monitoring of an Integrated Coastal Management Program. The main objective of this document is to analyze the actual coastal development model in Mexico and several models worldwide as well as their consequences and opportunities for sustainability. Grounded in an extensive interdisciplinary knowledge of public policies, public participation processes, and technical planning instruments, it proposes general action lines to address the problem of coastal management in Mexico from the integral analysis of the development observed in its coastal areas.

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Cited by (13)

Sediment trap height affects mass, particle size, and biogeochemical composition of material collected in an equatorial coral reef
2022, Marine Pollution Bulletin
Citation Excerpt :
Coral cover is declining worldwide (e.g. Richmond, 1993; Hughes et al., 2003, 2017), chiefly due to coral bleaching (Hughes et al., 2017; Dalton et al., 2020), overexploitation (Garrabou et al., 2017), and increased coastal development (driven by urbanisation and tourism; Sevilla et al., 2019).
Anthropogenic sedimentation is a major contributor to the worldwide decline in coral cover. Resuspension of benthic material can exacerbate the threat to corals, but evidence of vertical sediment gradients is limited. Here, we installed sediment traps at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 cm above the substrate at three equatorial reef sites for three months and determined the dry mass, particle size, and biogeochemical composition of the material collected. As the trap mouth height increased from 10 to 50 cm, dry mass decreased as sediments became finer, poorer in carbonate, and richer in silicate. Despite among-site differences in collected sediment, this vertical gradient was present in all trap arrays, likely driven by resuspension mechanisms on seabed sediments. These results have implications for coral vertical ecology and underline the importance of standardising sediment collection protocols.
The impact of creek formation and land drainage runoff on sediment cycling in estuarine systems
2022, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science
Citation Excerpt :
Over time, increasing pressure on coastal areas owing to rapid development in the coastal zone regions has led to significant changes in short and long-term natural processes (Dean and Dalrymple, 2002). About 2.5 billion people worldwide (40% of the world's population) currently live within 100 km of the coast adding increasing pressure to the coastal ecosystem (Sevilla et al., 2019). These developments may have direct impacts such as landfilling, dredging, and sand mining for construction or indirect impact, such as increased runoff (Reef resilience, 2016).
Field investigation and empirical analysis were used to assess the impact of tidal creeks and tidal flap gates (through which land surface runoff drains into estuaries) on sediment transport in the receiving waters downstream of the creeks and propose a semi-empirical model to assess the impact of water level rise and increased runoff flow, as may be expected under many climate change scenarios.
Results show that there is increased suspended sediment concentration (SSC) at low tide within the deeper channel downstream of the tidal flap gate. This is due to the high SSC that is ejected by the creek because of land drainage runoff with SSC in the creek ranging from 47 mg/l to 300 mg/l at spring ebb tide and that in the deeper channel ranging from 22 mg/l to 104 mg/l. This effect was more pronounced at spring tides when the water level in the deeper channel was low. Substantial sediment is supplied by the creek on a spring low tide than a neap low tide due to higher exposure period of intertidal flats for spring low tides. The combination of creeks and tidal flap gates has the highest impact on SSC in the deeper channel at low tide and high surface runoff flow.
It is recommended that moving forward on developments around coastal areas, management authorities create more effective and sustainable drainage systems with less impact on estuarine environments to protect aquatic life and promote habitat creation for a sustainable future. Such systems whereby there are numerous drainage flaps surrounding estuaries especially in intertidal flat areas should be transformed into systems with fewer secondary effects on estuarine environments.
25 years of multiple stressors driving the coral-algae phase shift in Akumal, Mexico
2021, Ocean and Coastal Management
Citation Excerpt :
An adapted new model of sustainable development in the Yucatan Peninsula, and particularly in Akumal, centered on social and environmental sustainability, is fundamental. This new model must address and regulate issues such as environmental degradation and destruction, biodiversity loss, mass tourism, the high rate of infrastructure development, the unplanned urban growth, the lack of proper sewage treatment plants, the stakeholder conflicts, as well as the lack of public participation in the development of public policies and programs at the local level (Mata-Lara et al., 2018), increasing the risk and vulnerability of the coastal environment (Muñoz-Sevilla et al., 2019). The optimization of these management actions may give Akumal Reef a window of opportunity to recover its structure, function, and ecosystem services.
Interactions between multiple stressors (climate change, pollution, and overfishing) can erode ecological thresholds and trigger a phase shift from a coral-dominated reef state to less desired benthic states. Akumal Reef located in the North of the Mexican Caribbean is an important case study to quantify the ecological changes of coral reefs affected by multiple stressors. Here we used both field data (benthic cover, coral condition, fish biomass), together with satellite data of the main stressors (degree heating weeks, chlorophyll a, and urban area), to (i) reconstruct the timeline of stressors that have affected Akumal Reef from 1995 to 2019; (ii) describe the changes in coral reef components (benthic cover, bleaching, coral diseases, and fish biomass) in this period; and (iii) propose a model integrating coral benthic changes and the significant stressors influencing those changes through time while taking into account stressors interactions and partial effects. Our results show that between 1995 and 2019, hard coral cover suffered an average absolute loss of 84%. This loss contrasted with an average absolute gain in total algae cover of 74% and was negatively associated with an increase of 290% in the urban area. During the study period, there has been no signal of positive recovery in hard coral cover, and increasingly available space has been occupied alternatively by filamentous algae or macroalgae after acute stressor events, such as bleaching or disease, which are more frequent, and persistent in the last decade. Our integrative model highlights interactions between urban area, maximum degree heating weeks, and chlorophyll a as main drivers of hard coral decrease, as well as interactions between urban area and precipitation, related to total algae increase. Akumal Reef degradation trend must be rapidly addressed by implementing management tools integrated into a comprehensive coastal planning model, which must reduce pollution and overfishing, allowing the recovery of its structure and function, and providing persistence of ecosystem services in a context of global changes and ecological ‘surprises’.
Remote sensing of coastal hydro-environment with portable unmanned aerial vehicles (pUAVs) a state-of-the-art review
2021, Journal of Hydro-Environment Research
Citation Excerpt :
More than 40% of the global population is currently living in coastal cities around the world, and the percentage is still growing (Muñoz Sevilla et al., 2019).
Urbanization together with climate change is imposing growing stresses on the sustainable development of major coastal cities around the world, particularly in developing countries. Thus, the need for regular monitoring of coastal water quality is becoming increasingly vital, and remote sensing is deemed to be a viable approach particularly due to its cost-effectiveness. Over the past two decades, remote sensing using satellite imaging has already been adopted in various tasks related to the monitoring of coastal hydro-enviro nment, including the detection of oil spills, identification of turbid plumes, mapping of marine ecosystems, etc. Despite their usefulness, space-borne sensors are subjected to constraints such as low spatial resolution, clouds and atmospheric interference, sparse frequency, and inflexible scheduling. Recently, remote sensing with portable Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (pUAVs) is emerging as a promising alternative for high spatial-resolution monitoring of coastal hydro-environment, with the key advantages that they can minimize the effects of atmospheric disruptions and be implemented with a frequent schedule to perform on-demand monitoring. In addition, with the technological advances in the sensor's design, UAVs are now capable of capturing data with fine spectral resolutions, ranging from several (multispectral) to hundreds (hyperspectral) of spectral bands. Data analytic is also improving rapidly with the advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning algorithms. In this paper, we present a systematic review of the recent developments in the utilization of UAV-based remote sensing for the sustainable development of the coastal hydro-environment, particularly with pUAVs. The key technical issues, including the design of UAV systems and the processing of data, are examined for specific applications. Future prospects for implementation are also discussed.
Translating globally threatened marine species information into regional guidance for the Gulf of Mexico
2020, Global Ecology and Conservation
Citation Excerpt :
However, impacts to species threatened by tourism within the Gulf of Mexico are likely to be less than other areas outside the Gulf, such as in the Caribbean. Historically, tourism in the region has been driven by the development of resort areas (Mendoza-Gonzalez et al., 2012), which has been closely linked to habitat loss (Sevilla et al., 2019) and has been established on a much larger scale in the Caribbean as compared to the Gulf. Pollution within the Gulf of Mexico is comparable to levels in the Greater Caribbean and Western Atlantic (Hyland et al., 2003; Jambeck et al., 2015).
A comprehensive understanding of the status of marine organisms in the Gulf of Mexico is critical to the conservation and improved management of marine biodiversity in the region. Threats and extinction risk, based on application of the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria at the global level, were analyzed for 1,300 Gulf of Mexico marine species. These species include all known marine mammals, sea birds, marine reptiles, cartilaginous fishes, bony shorefishes, corals, mangroves, seagrasses and complete clades of select invertebrates. Analyses showed that 6% of these species are threatened, 2% Near Threatened, 9% Data Deficient, and 83% Least Concern. However, the majority of these species are not endemic to the Gulf, and therefore are globally impacted by threats that may or may not be particularly intense within the Gulf. For example, many of these species are impacted by fisheries in much of their global range; however, the intensity of fishing pressure varies across their ranges, and some of these exploited species are well managed in the Gulf of Mexico. Other anthropogenic impacts, including industrial development, pollution, and habitat loss also vary in intensity across species’ global ranges. Here we provide recommendations for interpreting the application of global IUCN Red List Categories at the sub-global/regional scale, while highlighting conservation measures needed for marine species specific to the Gulf region.
A modeling study of the impact of increasing water exchange rate on water quality of a semi-enclosed bay
2019, Ecological Engineering
Citation Excerpt :
In addition, both S1 and S2 consist of building jetties causing the disturbance to longshore sediment transport. This would result in shoreline erosion in the lee of the structures, posing a threat to the Miankaleh Peninsula (Silva et al., 2007; Randazzo et al., 2013; Pranzini et al., 2018; Esmail et al., 2019; Muñoz Sevilla et al., 2019). Last but not least, all strategies require massive and repeated dredging, reducing benthic diversity and density (Hill et al., 1999; Lewis et al., 2001).
As a result of decreasing water level of the Caspian Sea and excess pollutants flowing into Gorgan Bay, water quality of the bay has deteriorated significantly. This study aimed to propose effective engineering approaches which can improve the water quality of the bay. Special focus was placed on increasing the rate of water exchange between the water body and the Caspian Sea by either dredging existing inlets between the two water bodies or creating an artificial inlet on the Miankaleh Peninsula, which can help to dilute the polluted water and flush pollutants out of the bay. A coupled hydrodynamic and solute transport model was employed to investigate the effects of different measures using the concepts of residence time which is an important tool used to identify biogeochemical processes and their consequences in water bodies. Model results showed that the engineering approaches would have a profound effect on the water quality of Gorgan Bay by reducing the residence time. Opening an artificial inlet in the west of the Peninsula would reduce residence time by two times. Furthermore, in economic terms, these strategies would also improve the standard of living of most of the inhabitants who live around the bay. However, from an environmental perspective, the engineering approaches would threaten the ecosystem of the bay in various ways, such as disrupting physical, chemical and biological processes taking place in the bay. Finally, it was concluded that the most sustainable approach is to control the stressor – pollution coming from Gorgan Bay watershed and entering the bay. This study clearly shows that restoration projects require a multidisciplinary systems approach.

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Chapter 3 - Coastal Development: Construction of a Public Policy for the Shores and Seas of Mexico

Abstract