Landscape strategies for resilient coast

Abstract

The current thesis explores how coastal systems could be managed in a resilient way with the contribution of landscape planning and what kind of added value can a social-ecological systems (SESs) approach offer to the field.

The use of SESs approach enables to examine coastal landscapes as a unified and dynamic system of human and nature relations. These relations are explored through a supporting concept of ecosystem services (ESS). According to the SESs approach, managing coastal landscapes in accordance with resilience principles acquires both - managing properties of SESs as well as properties of governance systems. I apply this viewpoint to a representative site in the north coast of Estonia: from Põhja-Tallinn to Paldiski.

The mixed methodology of the current work is a contribution to a resilient landscape planning process. It consists of complementing field, desktop, participatory and creative research aiming for gaining an understanding of coastal systems, co-creating site-specific knowledge and developing landscape strategies for the resilient coast of the representative site. In this process a landscape planner is a facilitator who assists the acknowledging, maintaining and strengthening certain properties of social-ecological systems.

I conclude that SESs approach is in itself the resilient way to address coastal challenges.