Deirdre Hart
Senior Lecturer, Geography
“The pattern of flow in rivers is like a piece
of classical music – it’s complex.”
With a background in geomorphology and ecology, Dr. Deirdre Hart is a senior lecturer in the Department of Geography where she teaches Coastal Studies, a discipline that includes “a bit of geology, geomorphology, hydrology and biological studies”. I ask her whether she was one of those children who spent whole summers at the beach, but Deirdre tells me that whilst academically, the coast has always been a passion, as a child, she did not spend more time there than the typical kiwi.
“I do remember a lot of times going to the beach – although probably no more than usual – but I was a classical science and maths student at high school and I got quite bored with the fact that only theoretical underpinnings were taught, not the applications. Coastal Studies is an area where you have a cool application for all the basic science.”
In the age of global warming, Coastal Studies also branches out into related sustainability topics. Media items about coastal erosion have increased people’s awareness of the issues, but that has yet to result in more sustainable coastal population or habitation patterns. Deirdre tells me that over 50% of the world’s population is now concentrated in coastal zones, and that these populations are still growing. “In some places it is under scrutiny - how we manage coasts sustainably for the future”, she says. “We’re stepping development right out to the coast - in most countries around the world we’re right at the fringes.”
When the coast is lined with solid structures like buildings, any dynamics in that environment – even if they are due to “completely natural cycles” – are potentially going to cause issues. “Coastal environments are incredibly dynamic, and if they are to be maintained in a healthy state you need to take that into consideration”, says Deirdre. “If you try to disrupt the dynamism by building solid structures and limiting the amount that the coast can wander back and forth over accretionary cycles you just stop the coast doing what it does to protect the land. That’s what the coast is, a buffer zone between the ocean and the land, and the land is often the focus of the resources people want to use and protect.
“We live on the land and that’s where our perspective is focused. But, all of the energy coming into this planet comes down through the atmosphere – solar energy stirring up the atmosphere, and wind transferring all that energy through oceans. So what do you put in between our precious land and the massive oceans? Things like beaches and coastlines which can respond dynamically.”
If it is in the coastal zone, it is not technically land, and Deirdre says that we are at risk of taking it for granted that coastal features are terra firma: “Things like dunes and spits – like the whole of the New Brighton spit – are not land features. If it’s a coastal zone it has to be flexible. Coastal Studies concepts are really central to New Zealand – not just in terms of our holidays, buildings and infrastructure – they’re also linked into debates like the New Zealand economy being driven by tourism or dairying.”
Deirdre says that currently around 70% of the country’s irrigation occurs in Canterbury, and that this feeds through to the coast: “We take ground water and we take river water. The pattern of flow in rivers is like a piece of classical music, it’s complex.” When the sediment and water transfers of a river are modified by irrigation systems upstream, the flow of water and material through to a river mouth lagoon is also affected, and Deirdre notes that in terms of balancing impacts on coastlines, this is “really, really important”.
“As a topic, the coast is not just a nice place for a holiday, or an address for some people’s homes, it’s at the centre of our economy, and the management of our resources. The uses of those environments are not always compatible in the way that we’re managing them. We want tourism to grow and we want to protect our tourism income, but we also want to protect our agricultural industries because they bring in income and food, but we need key strategies for doing both together.”
Deirdre notes how our values towards the coast have changed: “In the early twentieth century, the solution to issues were hard engineered, putting up sea walls for example. Now we laugh at that because we know that, although it might protect the land, it ruins the coast, and then it needs to be maintained. It’s just a recipe for delaying problems.”
When you put up a hard structure a cycle develops where: “everyone’s really comfortable so they increase development. Then because these structures need to be maintained, the problems are highlighted again and there’s a new level of risk, so then we really have to get out the pocketbook. Currently we try to reconnect coastlines with sediment supplies and remove structures where possible. We try and take soft engineering approaches like beach nourishment.”
Deirdre notes that urban and catchment planners and developers can sometimes be at odds with coastal scientists, and that what’s needed for the future is a rethinking of community values. “What do people want out of their interactions with the coast?” she asks. “What things do they want to sustain now and into the future? We need to derive different options for solutions out of community values.”
One hindrance is the hierarchy that has developed around resource management, and Deirdre says there is a lot of judgement about how people relate to a place: “If you’ve got doctor in front of your name, or you’re a consultant or a professional, that seems to hold more credibility than someone who has a whakapapa to a place, or someone who’s lived down by the beach all their life. At present we have a real hierarchy of how we place those different perspectives, but I think that hierarchy will change in multiple ways.”
Taking into account the opinions of people who are deeply familiar with the area may require effort, but Deirdre says that it can have long-term results: “In Scotland, local managers went through years of consulting with community about how to manage the coast and those plans have lasted years longer than other ones where they’ve been prescribed by professionals alone.
“Communities have lived in these environments for long times, and they’ve observed changes over their lifetimes, and people do have values that are not just economically based. I think in the future we will start to value those things that underpin our society like the quality and attraction of New Zealand.”
One area in which the ‘attraction’ of the coast is being deeply eroded, is in the greater incidence of rubbish both washed ashore andleft by beach goers. Whilst some may think that a few items don’t matter, the giant coagulations of plastic in our oceans would suggest otherwise. Deirdre explains how these floating landfills happen: “The North and South Pacific have big gyres that sort of pass each other at the equator where the ocean mixes and then you have sub gyres within it. The rubbish gets carried on these currents and it concentrates in the centres of certain gyres, one of which is off the south-east coast of the States.”
Deirdre says that there is sometimes a misperception that the problem has been created by ‘developing’ nations, but that anyone who uses plastic is responsible: “You know, today, the soles of my shoes are plastic. I brought my laptop in to work in a plastic carry bag because I left my case at home. We’re in this room – half of it is plastic. So how is it ‘them’? It’s not ‘them’. It’s us.”
Deirdre enjoys cycling, and she has a veggie garden and compost, but like many teachers of environmental subjects, she believes her greatest contribution to sustainability is in the role she plays in “fostering interest in coastal environments” and how they relate to the bigger picture. “I don’t mind if people don’t have the coast as their passion,” she says, “as long as they find a passion, and helping students to discover theirs – that’s really cool.”
Profile by Sharon McIver