Chapter 20
Coastal Dune Restoration: Trends
and Perspectives
M. Luisa Martínez, Patrick A. Hesp
and Juan B. Gallego-Fernández
20.1 Introduction
Sandy beaches and coastal dunes suffer the intense impacts of human activities.
Because of their foremost locations on the coast, they are preferred sites for urban
and maritime development, destinations for tourists, and the location of many
other human activities that take place on the beach or on coastal dunes. Thus, over
the years (but especially during the last few decades) many of the previously
natural dunescapes have been lost to urban, tourism, mining and industrial
developments. Furthermore, a recurring problem of many coastal dune systems is
over-stabilization, which is mostly the result of human actions (Hesp 1991;
Nordstrom et al. 2000; Hanson et al. 2002; Arens et al. 2004; Everard et al. 2010;
Hesp and Hilton 2012).
In brief, coastal dunes throughout the world are being rapidly lost and degraded;
thus, it is evident that there is an urgent need to preserve the natural and valuable
coastal dune remnants and, as much as possible, restore those that have been
degraded.
M. L. Martínez (&)
Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Red de Ecología Funcional,
Carretera Antigua a Coatepec no. 351, El Haya 91070 Xalapa, VER, Mexico
e-mail: marisa.martinez@inecol.edu.mx
P. A. Hesp
School of the Environment, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Finders University,
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
e-mail: Patrick.hesp@flinders.edu.au
J. B. Gallego-Fernández
Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Sevilla,
Ap. 1095 41080 Sevilla, Spain
e-mail: galfer@us.es
M. L. Martínez et al. (eds.), Restoration of Coastal Dunes, Springer Series
on Environmental Management, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-33445-0_20,
Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
323
Coastal Dune Restoration: Trends
and Perspectives
M. Luisa Martínez, Patrick A. Hesp
and Juan B. Gallego-Fernández
20.1 Introduction
Sandy beaches and coastal dunes suffer the intense impacts of human activities.
Because of their foremost locations on the coast, they are preferred sites for urban
and maritime development, destinations for tourists, and the location of many
other human activities that take place on the beach or on coastal dunes. Thus, over
the years (but especially during the last few decades) many of the previously
natural dunescapes have been lost to urban, tourism, mining and industrial
developments. Furthermore, a recurring problem of many coastal dune systems is
over-stabilization, which is mostly the result of human actions (Hesp 1991;
Nordstrom et al. 2000; Hanson et al. 2002; Arens et al. 2004; Everard et al. 2010;
Hesp and Hilton 2012).
In brief, coastal dunes throughout the world are being rapidly lost and degraded;
thus, it is evident that there is an urgent need to preserve the natural and valuable
coastal dune remnants and, as much as possible, restore those that have been
degraded.
M. L. Martínez (&)
Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Red de Ecología Funcional,
Carretera Antigua a Coatepec no. 351, El Haya 91070 Xalapa, VER, Mexico
e-mail: marisa.martinez@inecol.edu.mx
P. A. Hesp
School of the Environment, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Finders University,
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
e-mail: Patrick.hesp@flinders.edu.au
J. B. Gallego-Fernández
Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Sevilla,
Ap. 1095 41080 Sevilla, Spain
e-mail: galfer@us.es
M. L. Martínez et al. (eds.), Restoration of Coastal Dunes, Springer Series
on Environmental Management, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-33445-0_20,
Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
323