Coastal Landfills and Rising Sea Levels: A Challenge for the 21st Century

Frontiers in Marine Science

Víctor M. Santos¹  Samantha Cope²  Matthew Wadey³  Daniel Monfort⁴  Gonéri Le Cozannet⁴  Julia Gebert⁵  Timo Heimovaara⁵  Arne Arns⁶  Alejandra R. Enríquez⁸  Debra Reinhart⁸  Thomas Wahl⁸  Richard P. Beaven⁹  Anne Stringfellow⁹  Kate L. Spencer^1,10  Robert J. Nicholls^1,11 

[1] 0Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Yerseke, Netherlands;1Coastal Partners, Havant Borough Council, Havant, United Kingdom;Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, Bournemouth, United Kingdom;Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, Orléans, France;CITG, Delft, Netherlands;Department of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany;Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering and National Center for Integrated Coastal Research, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States;Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States;School of Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom;School of Geography, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom;Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom;

关键词: landfill;    waste;    erosion;    flood;    sea-level rise;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmars.2021.710342

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Populated coastal areas worldwide have a legacy of numerous solid waste disposal sites. At the same time, mean sea level is rising and likely to accelerate, increasing flooding and/or erosion. There is therefore concern that landfill sites located at and near the coast pose a growing risk to the environment from the potential release of liquid and solid waste materials. This paper aims to assess our present understanding of this issue as well as research and practice needs by synthesizing the available evidence across a set of developed country cases, comprising England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States (Florida). Common insights gained here include: (1) a lack of data and limited appreciation of waste release from coastal landfill as a potential problem; (2) recognition of the scale and diversity of coastal landfill waste within a range of generic settings (or situations); and (3) a lack of robust protocols that allow the impact of different categories of waste release to the coast to be assessed in a consistent and evidence-based manner, most particularly for solid waste. Hence, a need for greater understanding of the following issues is identified: (1) the amount, character and impact of waste that could be released from landfill sites; (2) the acceptability and regulation of waste eroding from coastal landfills; (3) present and future erosion rates at landfill sites suggesting the need for more monitoring and relevant predictive tools; (4) the full range of possible management methods for dealing with waste release from landfills and the science to support them; and (5) relevant long-term funding mechanisms to address this issue. The main focus and experience of current management practice has been protection/retention, or removal of landfills, with limited consideration of other feasible solutions and how they might be facilitated. Approaches to assess and address solid waste release to the marine/coastal environment represent a particular gap. Lastly, as solid waste will persist indefinitely and sea levels will rise for many centuries, the long timescale of this issue needs wider appreciation and should be included in coastal and waste policy.

【 授权许可】

Unknown