Seascapes in focus: coastal challenges and design solutions

What are seascapes?

Seascapes are the oceanic coastlines and their associated water surfaces of our planet that contain aquatic ecosystems. These vast areas are the edges of high biodiversity where the exchange between aquatic, amphibian, and terrestrial species occurs: they can also be described as ecotones. Additionally, they are probably the areas most intensely affected by human intervention - as most human settlements are located in coastal areas – and most at risk regarding sea level rise. 

Seascape is also an emerging concept in academia for which there is a growing interest from many different disciplines. The relationship to landscape is obvious, and many theoretical frameworks are borrowed and adapted from the discipline of landscape architecture to advance the discussion on how to understand seascapes. Another way of answering the question is to highlight the ‘scape’ in seascape, and that it may suggest that there are spatial conditions to consider in something that is often only considered as a ‘surface’. Our inability to see below the surface makes the sea challenging to represent, which in turn makes it difficult for us humans to acknowledge its many different values. Perhaps this is also why myths and fairy tales lend themselves so well to stories about the ocean and the sea?   

Have landscape architects historically considered water, or is that a new development?

Water has always been an important aspect of landscape architecture, but more as a visual or activity-related element that was either incorporated or part of a pre-existing site condition. 

Conversely, in the last couple of decades or so, the necessity to understand humanity's effects on water bodies and their related ecosystems has become crucial, as sea level rise and sea contamination become critical aspects of the environmental crisis. In this sense, the action of landscape architecture in coastal areas has become necessary as a provider of alternatives for habitat regeneration through constructions such as reefs, seawalls, floating islands, and other life-encouraging structures. These not only benefit aquatic species but also serve as protective barriers against coastal erosion and property destruction during storm surges. 

This year we have dedicated a course on advanced level in the landscape architecture programme at SLU to seascapes. The course “Transforming urban landscapes” has for some years engaged with various coastal landscapes such as the cities of Gothenburg, Helsingborg and Malmö with proposals for new wetlands, aquaponic gardening, recreated salty marshes, and coastal forests. Last year we focussed on the intricate landscape of Bromölla where water related issues manifested itself through various relations between the Ivö lake, the stream Skräbeån and the Baltic Sea. This year we stepped fully into the water, letting the Öresund become the site of our inquiries and interventions. Our intention is to expand the professional practice so that future landscape architects feel empowered to engage also with seascapes.

How can landscape architects be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to, for example, climate-related challenges in water landscapes? What tools are available? And who needs to collaborate?

As mentioned above, the necessity to better understand coasts and their related water bodies to become professionals who can tackle seascape projects has pushed forward the incorporation of design knowledge that generates projects for water habitats that can both allow for the thriving of aquatic life and for the protection of urban coastal habitats from storm surges and erosion.

The indeterminate condition of the landscape in general— and especially regarding the climatic instability caused by phenomena like global warming —needs to be recognized as one of the main aspects to be considered in the practice of landscape architecture. The necessity to welcome and be prepared for change demands projects that are more tactical than strategic: as a design tool, the tactic is dynamic, adaptable, and can be modified throughout the evolution of processes, while the strategy is static and uncomfortable with change. Additionally, and in reference to Michel de Certeau, strategy is the mode of operation of the powerful and usually functions in a top-down manner, while the tactic welcomes bottom-up approaches and is the way of the weak: regarding the havoc we have caused our planet as a species, it may be time to assume the place of the weak instead of that of the powerful to intervene the landscape. 

Interdisciplinary teams that incorporate marine and coastal biologists, as well as ecologists and social scientists, become crucial components of intervention projects. Additionally, it is essential to involve stakeholders with diverse interests in relation to these ecosystems, as well as the voices of people who live near seascapes, who can provide information about site identity and place-based knowledge necessary to inform eventual actions in seascapes. 

Why is water such a prominent topic on the research agenda right now?

Life originated in water, and the dynamics of the oceans determine weather: our survival and that of all other species depend on the condition of our planet’s water bodies. In the last decade, we have realized that the consequences of human development and of 

urbanization processes have been as intense on sea as on land. Although we can't see them so directly, the negative impacts on seascapes are extreme and leading to aquatic and coastal species extinction, scarcity of fish as an important human food source, coastal erosion, and destruction of coastal urban areas as the sea level rises. This situation necessitates new research that can provide us with data that acknowledges the existing conditions of seascapes and can also incentivize the quest for solutions, making improvements measurable. 

The oceans have for long been closely monitored by various agencies and organizations and a lot of data is actually already accessible. However, the purpose for monitoring the oceans have in the past had a lot to do with extraction of natural resources and rare minerals as well as military power and controlling trade routes. Hence, the socio-cultural values of seascapes are lacking as are the voices of local communities, not least indigenous populations. In order for future research on seascapes not to continue to support an exploiting one-dimensional agenda there is an immediate need for interdisciplinary research that is able to integrate qualitative and quantitative data, to mitigate conflicting research agendas and to work cross scales from small coastal villages to the vastness of the high seas.        

How can we ensure that practitioners access and make use of the knowledge generated by research?

By working from within academia on sites and problems that involve seascapes, we will incentivize the development of professionals who are interested and committed to these types of ecosystems, and will start to demand research that can inform their work. Transdisciplinary approaches in which researchers directly collaborate with societal stakeholders through, for example living labs, is one way of responding to this need. 

We also see new and inspiring formats for communicating research on seascapes. Jane Wolff's “Bay Lexicon” is one example where the author is contributing to a better understanding of the natural world by offering a vocabulary that also supports the ability to influence decision making related to seascapes. Another example is the beautiful book by Jasmijn Visser, Conflict Atlas: Geopolitics and Contingencies on the Malvinas-Falkland Archipelago that also brings forth the socio-political dimensions of seascapes and how our wish to control natural environments can backfire. 

Caroline Dahl, Senior Lecturer in landscape architecture at SLU. 

Max Rohm, Adjunct Professor in Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Buenos Aires and visiting scholar at SLU Landscape.