Marine Ecoengineering as a solution for boosting ecological urban resilience on the coast of São Paulo

Abstract

Increasing coastal urbanization poses a significant threat to global biodiversity and ecosystem services supporting essential functions for billions of people. Driven by urbanization, this process leads to biodiversity loss and alterations in natural habitats, resulting in community homogenization and modifications to energy and nutrient cycles. This phenomenon is particularly observed in marine ecosystems, where urbanization manifests through the addition of built structures such as wharves, pillars, and breakwaters, known as grey infrastructure. These structures occupy a substantial area of the coastline, surpassing the extent of mangroves and coastal sand dunes. These numbers are expected to increase in the coming years due to coastal population growth and associated demands for energy, food, and territorial asset protection. However, these structures tend to reduce diversity and increase the presence of opportunistic and exotic species, compromising the system's capacity to provide essential ecosystem services such as water quality and fisheries support. To mitigate these impacts, adopting sustainable practices, including nature-based solutions such as marine ecoengineering, is crucial. Marine ecoengineering combines engineering principles with ecological processes to enhance environmental quality and local socioeconomic benefits. Successful projects like Living Seawalls in Sydney demonstrate the potential of this approach to increase local biodiversity and stabilize coastal areas. In Brazil, where there is still limited adoption of environmental solutions for marine infrastructure, a project is underway to develop and test ecoengineering solutions in collaboration with Australian experts. This partnership aims to strengthen collaboration among researchers and expand the research network on human impacts on marine environments. The initial phase of the project involves engagement activities in Brazil to discuss and define ecoengineering solutions, followed by research visits to Australian institutions to share experiences and plan future joint initiatives. (AU)