Ecosystem based management and tourism development: risk and opportunities for coastal systems in the northern Adriatic sea

• Alberto Grando ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Ferrara

     University of Ferrara

     Ferrara, Italia

     
• Localización: TOURISCAPE2 - Transversal Tourism and Landscape International Scientific Conference: Barcelona, 5th-6th November 2020 / coord. por Ricard Pié Ninot, Carlos Jesús Rosa Jiménez, Josep María Vilanova Claret, Joaquim Sabaté Bel, Enrico Porfido, 2020, ISBN 978-84-9880-855-1, págs. 471-485
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Libro
• Resumen

  • The proposal investigates the interaction between the EbM (Ecosystem basedManagement) and the tourism development strategies of the coastal systemin the north of the Adriatic Sea. Many examples of seaside tourism expansionreveal an underlying conflict with the ecological assets of the landscape; theaim of the study is to explore if an ecosystem services strategy can address newtouristic developments in a way that results in an overall improvement of theterritory management and the quality of the landscape. In other words, the aimis to valuate if an ecological oriented strategy can meet the expectations ofboth tourism development and the environment.In particular, the article illustrates the results of a real case study located in thenorth of Venice, which includes approximately 40 km of coastal strip betweenthe Venice Lagoon and the Grado Lagoon. The particular morphology of thearea, formerly based on swamps and wet-lands, reveals a fragile territory,characterized by a stiffen coastal line created by reclamations, unable to absorbany external pressure, like rising of sea level, salt intrusion and flooding risk.Furthermore, in the last decades, the seashore became saturated by newconstructions and looks like a single urbanized boundary, able to host up to 22million tourists per season1, but with evident problems like subsidence, adverseeustatic2 conditions, salt intrusions.The scope of this paper is exploring a process which starts from the ecosystemservices analysis and ends up in a landscape design, which in this particularcase will reshape the whole morphology of the coast. The result of this study,based on the output of the geomorphological data, propose a double coast configuration, that restore some of the former wetlands behind the currentsea shore, connected with an ancient waterway called Litoranea; this strategy,focused in the EbM (Ecosystem based Management) and the ES (EcosystemServices), aims to create a territory able to react positively to the futurechallenges facing the coast (like sea rising level) and, at the same time, offersnew opportunities of touristic development that can take advantage of this newpath of lagoons and wetlands.