Environmental Impact of Large-scale Tidal Flats Reclamation in Jiangsu, China

While coastal reclamation creates huge benefits by providing a variety of resources for socio-economic development, the environmental impact of human activities should be appropriately evaluated. Since 2009, a large-scale tidal flats reclamation project was conducted. The project was suspended and no more reclamation was conducted after 2017. An integral assessment method has been desperately in need to comprehensively understand the environmental impact of such project which has been partly completed. A comparison was made between the states before and after the implementation of the reclamation project in Jiangsu coast. Results show that generally the large-scale reclamation had limited influence on the tidal system and coastal evolution, but inevitably changed the local hydrodynamic conditions in the vicinity of most project sites. Ecology resource suffered most pressure. Environmental pollution was also a critical indicator. An integrated framework was proposed based on the conceptual model of Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response to assess the environment impact of large-scale reclamation in Jiangsu tidal flats. However, large numbers of relevant data need to be collected on the way forward. Nevertheless, this assessment model will promote the long-term harmonious development of economic development and ecosystem health.