Case studies for urban wetlands restoration and management in Japan

Abstract

To effectively restore coastal habitats in urban areas, the surrounding dynamic coastal ecosystems, such as wetlands must be restored. In well-developed urban areas, most aquatic environments may be degraded in terms of water and sediment quality, as well as the essential hydraulic circulation. Restoring coastal habitats in urban areas is therefore a challenging task. Environmental status and its effort to restoration summarized for Tokyo Bay, Japan followed by two case studies of urban wetland restoration. At Shibaura Island, Tokyo, tide pool construction is shown as hardware type restoration case study. One of the means to ensure success in restoring habitats in an urban area is to use a sound ecosystem-based approach to guide the selection of restoration sites and the application of appropriate engineering and management methodologies. At Yokohama, software type restoration by terrace type habitat creation is shown. The development and management of the site with public participation, undertaken in an adaptive manner, is a key element of successful habitat restoration. This paper presents lessons learned from urban habitat restoration projects in Japan as examples.