Report: “Development fields: Suitability foreshore protection — Cappeler Tief (2003)»

Long stretches along the coast, the salt marshes, unless already structurally secured, are in demolition. The actual problems cause erosion at the foreland edge, not surface erosion. Coastal protection therefore increasingly requires measures to secure the demolition edges. Nature conservation also observes these demolitions with concern, but is facing the conflict that — if appropriate safeguards are taken — to counteract other objectives of nature conservation in the national park. The National Park Administration “Lower Saxony Wadden Sea” (NLP-V) has therefore classified the problem of edge demolition and dealing with these demolitions as a topic of particular importance. As a possible compromise between coastal protection and nature conservation, the development of stretching fields is discussed. These stretching fields are deposited upstream of the existing salt marshes in the demolition under suitable boundary conditions. As a result, the demolition at the edge can be significantly slowed down and in many cases even stopped in the long term. At the same time, this measure promotes landscaping and thus the formation of salt meadows. While coastal protection considers the stretching fields primarily from the point of view of the protective effect, nature conservation evaluates stretching fields primarily under the objectives of the national park. An essential aspect of this is the efficiency of such stretching fields for the natural balance. Therefore, nature-related areas are particularly interesting for nature conservation. So far, however, little experience and knowledge have been available for this purpose. On the part of the NLP-V, there is therefore a great interest in maintaining a better level of knowledge about the effects and development possibilities of planting areas that are close to nature, in particular in order to be able to design and evaluate possible future stretching buildings in a better way in terms of nature conservation. [...] As part of this project, the present thesis prepares the sedimentological morphological and vegetation-related data and partially translates them into a geographical information system. Ultimately, the aim is to evaluate the uncrowded and unpaved, i.e. relatively naturally developed stretching fields at the Cappeler Tief with regard to their suitability and/or performance for the objectives of nature conservation in the National Park. Based on this, criteria for securing decisions in future planning are developed and objectives are formulated. The project was funded by the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea Foundation.