Sustainable deltas: livelihoods, ecosystem services, and policy implications

Abstract

Coastal river deltas are dynamic and highly fertile landforms at the intersection of terrestrial and marine environments. They are often densely populated due to the opportunities for livelihood generation they offer, in particular, through agriculture and aquaculture production, but also for economic development and trade (Kuenzer and Renaud 2012). At the same time, and largely because they offer so many opportunities for development, many river deltas globally are threatened both by environmental and anthropogenic processes (Syvitski et al. 2009; Tessler et al. 2015; Szabo et al. 2015a). Deltas and their river basins are naturally dynamic systems, but human interventions in situ, such as urbanization, groundwater and hydrocarbon extraction, agricultural intensification, and channel regulation, and ex situ, including increased upstream water withdrawals, diversion and sediment trapping, increasingly combine with coastal hazards, such as sea level rise, salinity intrusion, and hurricanes to threaten delta social–ecological systems (e.g., Renaud et al. 2013). In combination, such processes exacerbate livelihood losses and existing inequalities, precipitate migration streams and often create new pockets of poverty, especially in urban centers within delta regions (Martin et al. 2013).