Living Seawalls, found in Australia, Asia, and Europe, aim to reduce the harmful impacts of "ocean sprawl" on the ecosystem, offering advantages to marine life, educating people about the marine environment, and helping to keep the seas clean.
Living Seawalls are the result of twenty years of scientific study that led to their development. Due to this research, Living Seawalls has developed a modular solution. This method permits the incorporation of vital marine ecosystems into maritime constructions. On artificial buildings, scalable mosaics of panels resembling habitat characteristics of natural coastal ecosystems, such as rock pools and rock fissures, are installed.
The complex patterns on the panel surfaces increase the available habitat space, making it more straightforward for seaweed, shellfish, and other marine life to colonize and thrive. They also prevent aquatic life from being consumed by predators and excessive temperatures.
It is vital to highlight that the panels may be incorporated into existing buildings and new projects that have altered the harbors, beaches, and oceans. For example, in Sydney Harbour, Australia, the early installations of Living Seawalls were designed to complement the existing seawalls.
In Sydney Harbour, Australia, the early installations of Living Seawalls were designed to complement the existing seawalls.
In November 2020, over 380 tiles were put in the intertidal and subtidal zone, making it the biggest Living SeaWalls project in Sydney Harbour.
The concrete tiles incorporate oyster shells and crushed sandstone from the Barangaroo site and span a depth of approximately 3.5 meters, with the higher intertidal level visible at low tide but submerged as the tide rises, and the two subtidal levels targeting different species based on their depth.
In the regions where living seawalls have been constructed, the amount of fish, seaweed, and invertebrates increased by 36 percent.
Ecologists at Living Seawalls have more than 15 years of expertise doing ecological research in various marine habitats, allowing them to offer ecological consulting services. These ecosystems consist of estuarine rivers, harbors, and coastal seas. In addition, they conduct the baseline studies of environmental conditions and biodiversity required for customizing eco-engineering designs or obtaining permissions. Each of these procedures is essential.
Bishop explains that the Living Seawalls team could swiftly spread the project to other locations if they won the Earth shot award of one million pounds. However, being a finalist has already garnered them worldwide notoriety.
"There are presently a variety of methods for groups to finance installations, including partnering with the government, corporate sponsors (especially when the works are placed on a waterfront), and community organizations that may fundraise for an installation," she adds.
Bishop asserts that the success of Living Seawalls to date is partially attributable to its multidisciplinary approach, which lies at the crossroads of marine ecology, architecture, design, and engineering.
"By using sound research and building our maritime infrastructure with nature in mind, Living Seawalls have tremendous potential to boost the ecological and social value of coastal structures across the globe," she adds.
In addition, they give an ecological evaluation of the performance of Living Seawalls installations at the site to check the return on investment and optimize any future installations that the business may be planning. These services are provided to assist the company.
The crew responsible for living seawalls has experience dealing with various organisms, from bacteria to fish, and the many ecosystem services, such as water filtration and fish reproduction. As a result, customization is a feature of both assessments and baseline surveys.
Living Seawalls seeks to bring about a fundamental transformation in how people see ocean building such that recent and ongoing shoreline development has a less harmful effect on the surrounding ecology.
People must ensure that no new development proceeds ahead without first considering how it may benefit both people and the environment. Living Seawalls is an organization that merges ecological and technical knowledge to develop adaptive and cost-effective approaches. The final objective is to provide maritime projects worldwide with a new lease on life.
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