Exploratory Review of Urban Expansion, Coastal Vegetation Environments (CVEs) and the Paradox of Sustainability

Abstract

Vegetation forms a fundamental proportion of resources used to determine the potential of the land on which they are sustained, unfortunately, urbanization has altered ecological systems and coastal vegetation environments all over the world, and the conservation of the endangered resource is still a serious challenge. Further, urbanization around the coastal vegetation environments is expanding at unprecedented rate, and this has resulted into more people relocating to these areas. For example, urban expansion reduces coastal vegetation, soil moisture and quality, and invariably results in poverty. From the foregoing, there is need for constant monitoring of endangered coastal ecosystems. Therefore, this paper appraises the impact, relevance perspectives threats, and challenges of coastal vegetation resources on account of urban expansion. Also, major advances and key issues relating to coastal vegetation management, as well as recommendations are discussed so as to help move the field forward. Address for correspondence: Dr. Tolulope Ayodeji Olatoye Department of Geography & Environmental Sciences, University of Fort Hare, Alice Campus, Province of the Eastern Cape, South Africa E-mail: , <201615087@ufh.ac.za> INTRODUCTION Coastal vegetation is core in ecosystem functioning and biodiversity enhancement (Brockerhoff 2017). These ecological systems rank amongst the most significant worldwide, providing several ecosystem goods and services which are central to the welfare of mankind (Adekola and Mitchell 2011), and these include the protection of the coastal ecosystem , improvement of water quality, biodiversity support, fishery nurseries, etc. Further, CVEs provide ecosystem services which relate to local climate mitigation, regulation and adaptation, food security (such as habitat provision, food supply and nurseries for seedlings and fisheries), occupational security, and an array of social/traditional benefits, scientific knowledge, ecotourism, recreation, as well as the preservation/development of spiritual and cultural values. Inspite of all these merits derived from coastal vegetation environments, ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss, which greatly undermines the life’s foundations is the abysmal phenomenon is experienced in CVEs (UNDP 2012). A great challenge to humanity, most especially the world’s poor is the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems. It is stated in literature that over 1.1 billion humans live on less than US$ 1 daily (UNSDSN 2013; FAO 2017), and they hinge directly on coastal vegetation environments for their feeding, energy needs, shelter and medical requirements, as well as ecosystem goods and services so as to sustain their livelihood (Rego 2018). Consequently, at present, over fifty percent of the world’s population (that is over 3 billion inhabitants) reside around 100 km radius of a coast, which is less than 20 percent of all landmass (UNEP 2016). Also, it is assessed that over 450 million people live around the coastal zones in Sub-Saharan Africa (Sale et al. 2014). It is also epitomized in literature that pressure resulting from anthropogenic factors in and around coastal vegetation environments (CVEs) has greatly sustained threat to vegetation, wildlife as well as economically important micro-organic resources in most developing societies, South Africa inclusive (Food and Agriculture Organization 2011; Amosu 2012). It is also elucidated in literature that the coastal environment, is the harbinger of biodiversity, as well as economic activities and leisure (Amosu 2012). For instance in South Africa, the native CVEs play germane roles regarding the stabiliJ Hum Ecol, 67(1-3): 21-30 (2019) DOI: 10.31901/24566608.2019/67.1-3.3152 © Kamla-Raj 2019 PRINT: ISSN 0970-9274 ONLINE: ISSN 2456-6608 22 TOLULOPE AYODEJI OLATOYE, AHMED MUKALAZI KALUMBA AND SONWABO PEREZ MAZINYO J Hum Ecol, 67(1-3): 21-30 (2019) zation of landscape against wind erosion, in addition to providing wildlife habitation. Further, CVEs play a critical role in the global sequestration of carbon that would otherwise remain as atmospheric CO2 and exacerbate climate change (Laffoley 2009; Nellemann 2009). These ecosystems sequester carbon, and this has culminated in improved research efforts in carbon sequestration and carbon dynamics over time (Mcleod 2011). Hence, it is imperative to restore and protect these endangered and highly fragile ecosystems, on account of the innumerable benefits accruing from the all-important, but highly threatened environment (Olatoye 2019). All over the world, it is found that rapid urbanization is a consequence of population growth. Haub (2011) opined that the human population all over the world has rapidly increased to about 7 billion people by the year 2012, and this is further projected that by year 2024, human population will not be less than 8 billion, and over 9 billion by the year 2043, with over half of these population figures living around coastal environments. As part of this development, coastal cities in the developing economies have undergone rapid urban expansion (Azadi 2011) and this has consequently culminated in tremendous burden on land use/land cover (LULC) from both unintended and unrestrained alterations (Kumar 2016). Additionally, undue pressure on ecological systems have resulted in urban sprawl in most metropolitan areas, (Laprise 2016) contributing to environmental change on the global scene (Wu 2014). Significant land use and land cover changes thus occurs in coastal cities, with population rise projected to more than 32 percent between 2015 and 2030 (Merkens 2016). These coastal cities perform important logistic, production and governance roles within the communities and regions they are found (Wei and Ye 2014). It is also projected that coastal cities have great impact on the future economic advancement of countries and larger geographic areas of the world (Roberts 2014). Various definitions have been provided for the definition of urbanization in literature. From the foregoing, an urban space (such as a metropolitan area, city or town) has been diversely defined by city administrators and the academia in terms of population density, total population size, and built-up surface areas or structures (Wu 2014). Further, the preponderance of built-up infrastructures, high population density, wideranging impervious surfaces, air pollution, altered conditions of climate and hydrology, as well as altered ecological system function and services permeate urban environments. Nevertheless, it is impracticable to epitomize all the core features and components of urban areas into one definition. Basically, the two most important factors that satisfactorily defines urban areas are extensive built-up areas and high human population. Fundamentally, these two factors directly or indirectly define the key ecological and environmental characteristics of urban systems (Wu 2014). Urban coastal vegetation helps to regulate temperature, also providing natural filter and noise absorbing functions. CVEs also improves the aesthetic and physical quality of natural resources as well as micro-climatic conditions (Patarkalashvili 2017). CVEs also promote improved value of life of urban dwellers on account of the delivery of several ecosystem goods and services, thereby enhancing physical, mental and social health, as well as improving the urban environment in general (Nesbitt 2017). Despite these innumerable merits of CVEs, little has been done to protect this fragile ecosystem, hence, the need for constant monitoring of land use and land cover changes in CVEs (Peng 2017). Thus, in order to fulfil the goals of a smart coastal city, the preponderance of illegal, unintended and arbitrary urban development to the detriment of natural coastal vegetation must be checked and the strategic development frameworks have to be strictly implemented by all stakeholders. On account of population pressure around coastal cities, it is therefore imperative to conserve and safeguard coastal vegetation across the world, as well as ensuring that ecosystem services and biodiversity function at optimum levels (Maskell et al. 2013; Sandifer et al. 2015). Despite the declining state of the world’s vegetation over the years, Barbier (2015) elucidates that millions of poor people live on coastal vegetation resources (CVEs), as well as sustaining the livelihood of over 2,500 native cultures. Additionally, FAO (2016) projected that over 2 billion people, (Not less than 40% of the population of developing countries), depend on fuelURBAN EXPANSION, COASTAL VEGETATION ENVIRONMENTS AND SUSTAINABILITY PARADOX 23 J Hum Ecol, 67(1-3): 21-30 (2019) wood for domestic purposes. To this end, it is therefore imperative to provide substitute energy sources, as well as the need to monitor and conserve CVEs so as to ensure ecosystem functioning and provisioning sustainability (Sandifer 2015). This will also ensure that the negative effects of urbanization are mitigated, in addition to reducing the harmful effects of climate change (Keenan 2015; Ibrahim et al. 2016). Besides the conservation of biodiversity, other numerous environmental functions and services are derivable from CVEs (Elmqvist et al. 2015), these include reduced soil erosion, flood and desertification control, sequestration of carbon, water supply (Adhikari 2016) and beautification of CVEs (FAO 2016). This paper therefore makes a clarion call for continued research to be undertaken, in addition to consistent monitoring and conserving our fragile CVEs, with the aim of achieving optimum functioning and service delivery of CVEs (Martinez-Harms 2015).