Living Seawalls: Bringing Marine Life Back to Concrete Coastlines

LIVING SEAWALLS

BRINGING MARINE LIFE BACK TO CONCRETE COASTLINES

BY MARIANA MAYER PINTO

Living Seawalls has developed an innovative approach to bringing marine life back to the thousands of miles of concrete coastlines around the world.

Living Seawalls is a program from the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, which was founded by the four main universities in Sydney. It has developed an innovative way to deal with the uncontrolled expansion of urbanization and artificial structures in the marine environment.

Usually, people think that urban sprawl is only a land problem, but we know that the majority of the big cities are located on the coast. And more and more, we are building in our seas, either for coastal defense to protect ourselves from sea-level rise, recreational activities like marinas and ports, and even offshore green energy facilities.

These structures do not only destroy the natural habitats where they are built, but they modify the area of the seafloor surrounding them. We have natural materials, of course, in natural shorelines, but we also have differences in color, light, and complexity. Artificial structures are flat and featureless; they don’t have all the nooks and crannies and crevices that organisms need to grow and protect themselves from predators or environmental stressors.

Living Seawalls is inspired by nature. We attach panels that mimic natural habitats onto artificial structures. We have panels that mimic rock pools, crevices, and sponge gardens made with a blend of ecological concrete and reinforced with metal bars. The way the panels are built, we can actually include upcycled materials. So we have panels that we put recycled oyster shells or sandstone, which is the natural stone in Sydney Harbor. And, increasingly, we are working to decarbonize some of these constructions.

Importantly, Living Seawalls is based on rigorous science. We have over 20 years of research that has led to our solutions. And after two years, at our installation at Harbor Bridge, we found that our sea wall has 91 species compared to less than half of that in some of the unmodified sea walls in the area. In a very short time, we can see the panels being colonized by seaweed and other marine life.

Living Seawalls is a holistic program. We think that outreach and education are extremely important. We engage a range of stakeholders from industry to government and public and educational programs.

Of course, another important thing is that Living Seawalls are usually installed in public areas where people work, live, and play. So they need to look good. And this is thanks to Reef Design Lab. They are pieces of art in themselves and have been exhibited in art galleries around the world.

Only after three years of our first installation, we now have 11 sites in Sydney Harbor alone, 14 sites in Australia, three sites internationally, and more in progress. And that managed us to be recognized by the Earthshot Prize from the Royal Foundation as finalists in the Revival Ocean category.

© LIVING SEAWALLS

Mariana Mayer Pinto

Scientia Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales

Sydney, Australia

Mariana Mayer Pinto is a Scientia Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Science at UNSW. She obtained her Ph.D. in marine sciences from the University of Sydney and holds an MSc in zoology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a consultant, leading data analyses of one of the biggest environmental projects in Australia (Gorgon Project, Chevron).