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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Marine urban sprawl is gobbling up Earth’s coastlines

Jetties, docks and other artificial structures are fast replacing the natural ecosystems where sea meets land.
Container terminals on Vancouver Harbour with the city in the background

Container terminals in Vancouver, Canada, where artificial structures ‘armour’ 75% of the coastline. Credit: James MacDonald/Bloomberg/Getty

In coastal cities around the world, artificial coastal infrastructure is likely to swallow up significant proportions of the remaining unspoilt coastal areas in the next 25 years, modelling shows1.

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Nature 599, 10 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02941-5

References

  1. Floerl, O. et al. Nature Sustain. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00780-w (2021).

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