Our Wetland Heritage: An Integrated Approach Towards Managing Coastal Landscapes

海岸景观是人类社区和自然力量经常发生冲突的有争议的地方。本港许多主要河口的填海湿地，尤其受到威胁，因为这些地方几乎无一例外地提供大片平地，邻近主要的市区、工业和运输发展，而这些发展又为这些地方提供了遮蔽的沃茨。丰富的冲积土也是肥沃的农田，随着现代排水技术和农业集约化，许多地区丰富的湿地生境被可耕地取代。在许多地方，海平面上升构成了另一个威胁，因为侵蚀迫使环境局决定是否增加资源来维持现有的防洪设施，或者采取更灵活的方法，通过破坏海堤来创造新的泥滩并允许盐沼再生，从而作为“软”防洪（与目前的混凝土和石头覆盖的“硬防御”相反）。这种有管理的重新调整对我们沿海湿地丰富的文化遗产构成了威胁，无论是在历史景观方面-构成今天乡村的田地、道路、定居点和防洪设施的现有模式-还是在永久高水位确保得到特别良好保护的埋藏考古学方面。然而，我们的沿海湿地是一个有争议的景观的另一种方式：不同保护机构的目标有时相互冲突。随着重要的自然生境的丧失，例如由于重大基础设施的发展，自然保护机构通常的做法是在附近创造同等或替代环境，作为一种补偿形式，而且实际上往往是《欧洲联盟生态系统指令》规定的一项法律的要求。例如，当卡迪夫湾堤坝被创建时，在Gwent Levels上挖掘了大型泻湖，以创建替代的鸟类饲养场，导致大面积的中世纪景观被破坏。随着全国各地提出类似的计划，迫切需要遗产和保护机构更密切地合作;首先是了解导致目前历史景观形成的历史过程，其次是确定湿地景观的关键特征是最重要的保护，第三，如何在这些景观中最好地容纳自然保育的改善。该项目将使用申请人Stephen Rippon教授开发的历史景观分析技术，为埃塞克斯南部沿海湿地的未来管理提供信息，包括南埃塞克斯沼泽自然保护区（预计每年接待35万游客），该保护区福尔斯泰晤士门户开发项目-西欧最大的再生倡议。该项目将与埃塞克斯县理事会和皇家鸟类保护协会的历史环境服务合作，产生五个关键成果：一份报告，这将具有直接和持久的价值，为这些景观的未来管理提供信息;一系列研讨会，以促进包括环境局和自然英格兰在内的各利益相关方之间的讨论;以当地社区为对象的小册子、巡回展览和公开会议;旨在解释这些个案研究所用方法的“工具包”，以便其他人可以在其他地方开展类似工作;并将在国际同行评审期刊《景观研究》上发表一篇论文，向更广泛的专业受众传播项目成果。

Coastal landscapes are contested places where human communities and natural forces regularly come into conflict. The reclaimed wetlands that fringe so many of our major estuaries are particularly threatened as they almost invariably provide large areas of flat land close to major urban, industrial and transport developments associated with the sheltered waters that these locations afford. The rich alluvial soils also make for fertile agricultural land that, with modern drainage techniques and agricultural intensification, has in many areas led to rich wetland habitats being replaced with arable praries. In many locations, rising sea levels are posing another threat as erosion is forcing the Environment Agency to decide whether to pump increasing resources into maintaining existing flood defences, or to adopt a more flexible approach by breaching sea walls in order to create new mudflats and allowing saltmarsh to regenerate, so acting as 'soft' flood defence (in contrast to the present concrete and stone clad 'hard defences'). Such managed re-alignment poses a threat to the rich cultural heritage of our coastal wetlands both in terms of the historic landscape - the present patterns of fields, roads, settlements and flood defences that make up today's countryside - and the buried archaeology that permanently high water tables have ensured are exceptionally well preserved. There is, however, one further way in which our coastal wetlands are a contested landscape: the sometimes conflicting objectives of different conservation bodies. As important natural habitats are lost, for example through major infrastructure developments, it is common practice, and indeed often a legal requirement under the European Union Habitats Directive, for nature conservation bodies to create equivalent or alternative environments nearby as a form of compensation. For example, when the Cardiff Bay Barrage was created, large lagoons were dug on the Gwent Levels to create alternative bird feeding grounds which led to a large area of medieval landscape being destroyed. With similar schemes proposed around the country there is a desperate need for heritage and conservation bodies to work more closely together; firstly in understanding the historical processes that have led to the creation of the present historic landscape, secondly in establishing what key character defining features of a wetland landscape it is most important to preserve, and thirdly how nature conservation enhancements can best be accommodated within these landscapes. This project will use the techniques of historic landscape analysis developed by the applicant, Professor Stephen Rippon, to inform the future management across the coastal wetlands of southern Essex including the South Essex Marshes Nature Reserve (expected to receive 350,000 visitors annually) that falls within the Thames Gateway development - western Europe's largest regeneration intiative. The project will work in partnership with the Historic Environment Service of Essex County Council and RSPB to produce five key outputs: a report, that will have both immediate and lasting value, informing future management of these landscapes; a series of seminars to facilitate discussion between the various interested parties including the Environment Agency and Natural England; a booklet, travelling exhibition and public meeting aimed at local communities; a 'toolkit' designed to explain the methodologies used in these case-studies in such a way that others can carry out similar work elsewhere; and a paper to be published in an international peer reviewed journal - Landscape Research - will disseminate the results of the project to a wider professional audience.