Prague, Rotterdam Airport, Dordrecht, Trondheim, Orleans, and Gloucestershire)
the project is working to improve methods for assessing the vulnerability to
flooding of the urban environment (Van and Van Ree 2011). Historically at least
20 towns on that Humber coast have been lost to the sea in less than a millennium.
Across the channel France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark have
to cope with erosion that menaces huge economic interests on their coasts. Ter
Streep, Harendycke and Scarphout were once shore villages of the Flandrian coast
and the Verdronken Land van Saaftingen (Drowned Land of Saaftingen) was a rich
pasture area of the Scheldt Delta. Accretion has transformed thriving ports into near
land-locked cities and has sometimes provided puzzles to geologists and riddles to
toponymists. Why is Montreuil-sur-Mer (France) not on the sea and why is Belle
Isle (France) a town at considerable distance from the nearest water body? How did
it happen that oyster shell “reefs” formed inland in the southwest of France?
The European Union commissioned a study on the shifting coastlines that showed
more than disquieting trends. In its desire to protect and promote sustainable development of coastal zones, in March 2013 the European Commission adopted a draft
proposal on Coastal Erosion and Protection in Europe. Its directive aims at
establishing a framework for maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management. According to their website (European Commission 2013), “The proposed
instrument will require Member States to establish coastal management strategies
that build further on the principles and elements set out in the Council Recommendation on Integrated Coastal Zone Management of 2002 and the Protocol to the
Barcelona Convention on Integrated Coastal zone Management, ratified by the EU in
2010.” Coherent application with maritime spatial planning will improve the sea-land
interface planning and management, including the effects of infrastructure works to
protect coastlines against erosion or flooding on activities in coastal waters such as
aquaculture or protection of marine ecosystems (Pranzini and Williams 2013).
Tidal inlets have a geological or hydrological origin (Fig. 36.9) (Aubrey and
Giese 1993; Hayes and Duncan 2013). Two examples of tidal inlets that once gave
access to thriving ports are Brouage in France and Bruges in Belgium. Brouage was
the departure point of the explorer de Champlain who sailed to “New France” in
1603, and Bruges was once the wealthiest port city of Northern Europe. The first
one is today a historic site and developed into an artists’ center, the other, also a
tourism mecca, has however risen from its ashes and re-sited its port on the North
Sea. Both are amidst contemporary polderland, neither has a fishing fleet left and
the tourism trade has supplanted, or equaled, in economic importance, the traditional occupations of yore.
Contemporary Brouage has many a memento of its important past as a port.
There is a Blessed Virgin adorning the front of the Swedish Titus that stranded in
the sixteenth century not far from the harbor’s entrance channel, or the masonry
above the door of Antwerp merchant Mathias Hazeur’s home that has an advice
chiseled, in Flemish, “He who puts his trust in God has wisely built”. A pun about
Brouage is that instead of being Brouage-on-the-Sea it is Brouage-with-no-Sea. Just
invert two letters: from “on” to “no”, and pass from Brouage-sur-mer to Brouagesans-mer.
608
R.H. Charlier and C.C. Charlier
the project is working to improve methods for assessing the vulnerability to
flooding of the urban environment (Van and Van Ree 2011). Historically at least
20 towns on that Humber coast have been lost to the sea in less than a millennium.
Across the channel France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark have
to cope with erosion that menaces huge economic interests on their coasts. Ter
Streep, Harendycke and Scarphout were once shore villages of the Flandrian coast
and the Verdronken Land van Saaftingen (Drowned Land of Saaftingen) was a rich
pasture area of the Scheldt Delta. Accretion has transformed thriving ports into near
land-locked cities and has sometimes provided puzzles to geologists and riddles to
toponymists. Why is Montreuil-sur-Mer (France) not on the sea and why is Belle
Isle (France) a town at considerable distance from the nearest water body? How did
it happen that oyster shell “reefs” formed inland in the southwest of France?
The European Union commissioned a study on the shifting coastlines that showed
more than disquieting trends. In its desire to protect and promote sustainable development of coastal zones, in March 2013 the European Commission adopted a draft
proposal on Coastal Erosion and Protection in Europe. Its directive aims at
establishing a framework for maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management. According to their website (European Commission 2013), “The proposed
instrument will require Member States to establish coastal management strategies
that build further on the principles and elements set out in the Council Recommendation on Integrated Coastal Zone Management of 2002 and the Protocol to the
Barcelona Convention on Integrated Coastal zone Management, ratified by the EU in
2010.” Coherent application with maritime spatial planning will improve the sea-land
interface planning and management, including the effects of infrastructure works to
protect coastlines against erosion or flooding on activities in coastal waters such as
aquaculture or protection of marine ecosystems (Pranzini and Williams 2013).
Tidal inlets have a geological or hydrological origin (Fig. 36.9) (Aubrey and
Giese 1993; Hayes and Duncan 2013). Two examples of tidal inlets that once gave
access to thriving ports are Brouage in France and Bruges in Belgium. Brouage was
the departure point of the explorer de Champlain who sailed to “New France” in
1603, and Bruges was once the wealthiest port city of Northern Europe. The first
one is today a historic site and developed into an artists’ center, the other, also a
tourism mecca, has however risen from its ashes and re-sited its port on the North
Sea. Both are amidst contemporary polderland, neither has a fishing fleet left and
the tourism trade has supplanted, or equaled, in economic importance, the traditional occupations of yore.
Contemporary Brouage has many a memento of its important past as a port.
There is a Blessed Virgin adorning the front of the Swedish Titus that stranded in
the sixteenth century not far from the harbor’s entrance channel, or the masonry
above the door of Antwerp merchant Mathias Hazeur’s home that has an advice
chiseled, in Flemish, “He who puts his trust in God has wisely built”. A pun about
Brouage is that instead of being Brouage-on-the-Sea it is Brouage-with-no-Sea. Just
invert two letters: from “on” to “no”, and pass from Brouage-sur-mer to Brouagesans-mer.
608
R.H. Charlier and C.C. Charlier