viii
for conservation and protective management. Chapter 13 (“Egyptian Nile Delta
Coastal Lagoons: Alteration and Subsequent Restoration”), by Ayman A. El-Gamal,
identifies causes of wetland degradation in the Egyptian Mediterranean coastal
region to be pollution, deterioration of water quality, eutrophication, habitat loss,
overfishing, siltation, and climate change. Field studies are being conducted in
efforts to determine management practices that will improve the resilience of these
coastal lagoons.
Part III covers restoration techniques, ecological aesthetics, and ecosystem conservation with particular emphasis on sustainability and biodiversity. Although
some of the previous chapters include discussion of remediation, this section highlights restoration efforts that promote sustainability and biodiversity in the broadest
sense. This section is thus a logical follow-up to the previous two sections that primarily identified threats or risks to coastal wetlands. Determination or identification
of the problem is obviously the first step in remediation; otherwise, it is impossible
to remedy causes of unwanted conditions or situations. These chapters are examples
of efforts in a diverse range of ecological setups where management strategies are
proffered as means of conservation and protection within the realm of restoration
and remediation. Chapter 14 (“Coastal Wetland Restoration: Concepts, Methodology,
and Application Areas Along the Indian Coast”), by Ramasamy Manivanan, features
a new concept that uses natural restoration techniques for coastal wetland restoration using the Chilika wetland ecosystem as a prototype. The idea here is to create
conditions under which coastal ecosystem processes can withstand and diminish the
impact of stressors. Chapter 15 (“Ecological Aesthetics Perspective for Coastal
Wetland Conservation”), by LeeHsueh Lee, posits a new approach to the conservation of coastal wetlands where it is suggested that aesthetic preference provides a
critical connection between humans and ecology. Promoted here is the prospectrefuge theory and the preference matrix of the bioevolutionary hypothesis, based on
aesthetic experience, that could drive landscape change and pull with it ecological
quality. Chapter 16 (“Estuarine Ecoclines and the Associated Fauna: Ecological
Information as the Basis for Ecosystem Conservation”), by Mário Barletta, André
R.A. Lima, Monica F. Costa, and David V. Dantas, is based on the definition of
ecocline as a “gradation from one ecosystem to another where there is no sharp
boundary between the two” where there are relatively heterogeneous communities
influenced by gradual changes between river-dominated and marshlike waters. This
chapter explains how to generate descriptors of reference conditions taking into
account how human impacts affect coastal systems while providing steps to guarantee the sustainable use of estuarine resources. Chapter 17 (“Alteration and
Remediation of Coastal Wetland Ecosystems in the Danube Delta: A RemoteSensing Approach”), by Simona Niculescu, Cédric Lardeux, and Jenica Hanganu,
demonstrates advantages of using remote sensing techniques to classify coastal wetland vegetation in the Danube Delta (a Biosphere Reservation), which was altered
by human intervention in over one quarter of the entire delta surface. The random
forest supervised classification algorithm was used to advantage for the Sentinel-1
and Sentinel-2 data collection. Chapter 18 (“Implementation of a Wildlife
Management Unit as a Sustainable Support Measure Within the Palo Verde Estuary,
Preface
for conservation and protective management. Chapter 13 (“Egyptian Nile Delta
Coastal Lagoons: Alteration and Subsequent Restoration”), by Ayman A. El-Gamal,
identifies causes of wetland degradation in the Egyptian Mediterranean coastal
region to be pollution, deterioration of water quality, eutrophication, habitat loss,
overfishing, siltation, and climate change. Field studies are being conducted in
efforts to determine management practices that will improve the resilience of these
coastal lagoons.
Part III covers restoration techniques, ecological aesthetics, and ecosystem conservation with particular emphasis on sustainability and biodiversity. Although
some of the previous chapters include discussion of remediation, this section highlights restoration efforts that promote sustainability and biodiversity in the broadest
sense. This section is thus a logical follow-up to the previous two sections that primarily identified threats or risks to coastal wetlands. Determination or identification
of the problem is obviously the first step in remediation; otherwise, it is impossible
to remedy causes of unwanted conditions or situations. These chapters are examples
of efforts in a diverse range of ecological setups where management strategies are
proffered as means of conservation and protection within the realm of restoration
and remediation. Chapter 14 (“Coastal Wetland Restoration: Concepts, Methodology,
and Application Areas Along the Indian Coast”), by Ramasamy Manivanan, features
a new concept that uses natural restoration techniques for coastal wetland restoration using the Chilika wetland ecosystem as a prototype. The idea here is to create
conditions under which coastal ecosystem processes can withstand and diminish the
impact of stressors. Chapter 15 (“Ecological Aesthetics Perspective for Coastal
Wetland Conservation”), by LeeHsueh Lee, posits a new approach to the conservation of coastal wetlands where it is suggested that aesthetic preference provides a
critical connection between humans and ecology. Promoted here is the prospectrefuge theory and the preference matrix of the bioevolutionary hypothesis, based on
aesthetic experience, that could drive landscape change and pull with it ecological
quality. Chapter 16 (“Estuarine Ecoclines and the Associated Fauna: Ecological
Information as the Basis for Ecosystem Conservation”), by Mário Barletta, André
R.A. Lima, Monica F. Costa, and David V. Dantas, is based on the definition of
ecocline as a “gradation from one ecosystem to another where there is no sharp
boundary between the two” where there are relatively heterogeneous communities
influenced by gradual changes between river-dominated and marshlike waters. This
chapter explains how to generate descriptors of reference conditions taking into
account how human impacts affect coastal systems while providing steps to guarantee the sustainable use of estuarine resources. Chapter 17 (“Alteration and
Remediation of Coastal Wetland Ecosystems in the Danube Delta: A RemoteSensing Approach”), by Simona Niculescu, Cédric Lardeux, and Jenica Hanganu,
demonstrates advantages of using remote sensing techniques to classify coastal wetland vegetation in the Danube Delta (a Biosphere Reservation), which was altered
by human intervention in over one quarter of the entire delta surface. The random
forest supervised classification algorithm was used to advantage for the Sentinel-1
and Sentinel-2 data collection. Chapter 18 (“Implementation of a Wildlife
Management Unit as a Sustainable Support Measure Within the Palo Verde Estuary,
Preface