Coastal Wetland Degradation and its Restoration Planning Incorporating Landscape and Ecological Processes in Tianjin, Northern China

Abstract

Coastal wetlands are the main natural ecosystem type and provide important ecosystem services. During the past thirty years, wetlands had experienced increasing pressures from occupation and degradation with coastal economic activities in Tianjin. A large amount of natural wetland had been changed into artificial wetland, and rivers had been seriously polluted. Using remote-sensing images, the recent history of the dynamics for the shoreline changes and reclamation were described. The area of reclamation land increased from 52.32 km2 in 2004 to 312.78 km2 in 2010. Following the investigation, 232 species wetland plants were found and they are belongs to 46 families and 135 genera. The community is mainly composed of herbs, and no big trees were founded as high salt content in soil and groundwater. The coastal wetland vegetation succession rules were summarized based on investigation and a wetland protection and restoration program was put forward based on the vegetation succession sequence and the landscape context. The planning includ two wetland protection sites, two wetland restoration sites, one wetland park and one wetland education site to reconstruct the ecological integrity in Tianjin coastal region.