Analysis of forty years long changes in coastal land use and land cover of the Yellow Sea: The gains or losses in ecosystem services. (October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yim, Jongseo; Kwon, Bong-Oh; Nam, Jungho; Hwang, Jin Hwan; Choi, Kyungsik; Khim, Jong Seong
• Is Part Of: Environmental pollution. Volume 241(2018)
• Page Start: 74
• Page End: 84
• Publication Date: 2018-10
• Subjects: Intertidal flat -- Land-reclamation -- Land cover change -- Blue carbon -- East Asia; Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Environmental Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Aspect de l'environnement -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Effets physiologiques -- Périodiques; Pollution; Pollution -- Environmental aspects; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.73
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2018.05.058
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-7491

Abstract

Abstract: The drastic land cover change and its impacts in the Yellow Sea have long been significant issues in terms of coastal vulnerabilities, but holistic data analysis is limited. The present study first reports 40 years long geographical changes of the Yellow Sea coasts including all three neighboring countries of China, North Korea, and South Korea. We delineated tidal flats by analysis of Landsat series satellite imageries (662 scenes) between 1981 and 2016. A total area of the Yellow Sea tidal flats has been considerably reducing for the past 36 years, from ∼10, 500 km 2 (1980s) to ∼6700 km 2 (2010s), say ∼1% annual loss. A majority loss of tidal flats was mainly due to the grand reclamations that conducted in almost entire coast of the Yellow Sea, particularly concentrated in the 1990s-2000s. Coastal reclaimed area during the past four decades reached ∼9700 km 2, including ongoing and planned projects, which corresponds to over half the area of precedent natural tidal flats of the Yellow Sea. The potential carbon stocks in the eight representative regions with large scale reclamation indicated significant loss in carbon sink capacity in the South Korea's coast (∼99%), while evidenced a lesser loss from the China's coast (∼31%). It was noteworthy that the progradation of tidal flats after the reclamation in China's coast significantly reduced the loss of carbon sequestration. According to the ecosystem services valuation for the Yellow Sea, a total loss was estimated as ∼8 billion USD yr −1 with relatively high proportional loss (up to 25%) of climate regulating services (viz., carbon sequestration). Overall, huge losses in ecosystem services being provided by the Yellow Sea natural tidal flats need immediate action to prevent or at least alleviate accelerating ecological deteriorations. Finally, future conservative policy direction on coastal wetlands management has been proposed towards enhancement of marine ecosystem services. Graphical abstract: Highlights: Tidal flats area in the Yellow Sea reduced by ∼36% from 1981 to present, say 1% annual loss. Cumulative reclaimed area along the Yellow Sea coast reached ∼9700 km 2 for past 40 years. Complete destruction of carbon stock (>99%) was evidenced by coastal reclamation in Korea. Annual loss of ESV in the entire coast of the Yellow Sea was estimated ∼8 Billion USD. This study reconfirmed the relationship between coastal development and ecological impact. Abstract : "About half of natural tidal flats of the Yellow Sea disappeared primarily due to reclamation for the last 40 years, accordingly coastal carbon stocks were drastically reduced."