Gute Küste Niedersachsen – Real-world laboratories for ecosystem-strengthening coastal protection on the coast of Lower Saxony

Background and objectives
Coastal protection is based predominantly on building in nature, thus ensuring the population’s safety from natural hazards. However, the impact of coastal protection on the natural environment has been largely ignored. Given the increasing pressure on the coastal seas and the effects of climate change, the established, proven coastal protection must be supplemented or transformed into ecosystem-strengthening coastal protection to ensure responsible and sustainable living and economic activity in harmony with nature, embedded in the evolved cultural landscape.

The project aims to test robust, multifunctional and in particular ecosystem-strengthening coastal protection measures and to ensure that these are simultaneously taken into account in reliable planning and approval by the responsible state authorities and are accepted by civil society. The Institute for Environmental Planning is involved in three subprojects. Subproject 5 deals with the socio-ecological dimensions of ecosystem strengthening coastal protection. Here, the IUP records the knowledge and preferences of coastal inhabitants and guests in the use of coastal ecosystems and analyzes potential conflicts and synergies with regard to ecosystem-enhancing coastal protection. These investigations are closely linked to the work in subproject 4, where the provision of cultural ecosystem services (CESL) of marine ecosystems for e.g., leisure, recreation and environmental education is considered using existing (geo)data. In subproject 1, the results of all participating disciplines will be brought together and the structure of the cooperation between researchers and practice partners in the real-world laboratory will be developed and coordinated.

More detailed information and current news can be found on the official project homepage: http://gute-kueste.de/en/gute-kueste-niedersachsen-en/

Project partner

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover

• Ludwig-Franzius Institut für Wasserbau, Ästuar- und Küsteningenieurwesen
• Institut für Umweltplanung
• Institut für Freiraumentwicklung
   

Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

• Institut für Chemie und Biologie des Meeres
• Ökologische Ökonomie
   

Technische Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig

• Leichtweiß-Institut für Wasserbau
• Institut für Geoökologie, Abteilung Landschaftsökologie und Umweltsystemanalyse