Environmental Implications of Recreational Boating a Study of Kosterhavets Marine National Park
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Environmental Implications of Recreational Boating A study of Kosterhavets Marine National Park Joseph Santhi Pechsiri Master of Science Thesis Stockholm 2009 Environmental Implications of Recreational Boating A study of Kosterhavets Marine National Park By Joseph Santhi Pechsiri Advisor: Fedrik Grondahl Master’s Thesis M.Sc. Sustainable Technology Department of Industrial Ecology Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan 2009 TRITA-IM 2009:16 ISSN 1402-7615 Industrial Ecology, Royal Institute of Technology www.ima.kth.se Abstract Koster archipelago is high in diversity; Koster has atleast 200 unique species, and also contains various elements attracting a lot of tourists. Koster archipelago resembles various factors that are highly suitable for recreational boating. However, this may become a massive environmental threat. This study investigates the environmental implications of recreational boating and the factors facilitating the impacts by conducting a systems analysis of recreational boating. The investigation has led to the identification of releases of NOx, COx, HCs, and TBT, among other pollutants. In addition, the investigation have estimated the possible total emissions amounts of boats in Koster, with approximately 850 000 kg CO2, 2500 kg NOx, 256 kg sewage Nitrogen, 32 kg sewage Phosphorous, 126.6 kg, and a minimum of 3.2 kg of TBT released per year. Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Location of Study 1 1.2 Prologue 1 1.3 Aims, Objectives, Scopes, and Boundaries 2 2.0 Literature Review 4 3.0 Methodology 20 3.1 Framework overview 20 3.2 Emission Estimation Methodology 28 4.0 Result 35 4.1 Process Inventories Identification Result 35 4.2 Impact Assessment of Recreational Boating Result 36 4.2.5 Emission Estimates Summary 52 5.0 Discussion 54 6.0 Conclusion 63 7.0 Acknowledgement 64 8.0 Reference 65 Appendix A Boats and Ships Registered with the Swedish Transport Agency 68 Appendix B Filtered Data Collected on Registered Boats and Engine Specs 204 Appendix C Fuel Estimation for 805 Boats using Regression and Means 225 Appendix D Questionnaire 245 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Location of Study Koster islands are located to the west coast of Sweden in the vicinity of the Norther Skaggerak Sea. The archipelago consists mainly of 2 islands: the main island Sydkoster (South Koster) and the natural reserved Nordkoster (North Koster). The koster islands will become a marine national park by mid 2009, which include approximately 450 km2 of area, excluding some islands, and would be bordering the to be proposed Ytre Hvaler marine national park over the Norwegian border (Hambrey J., 2008). Kosterhavets Marine National Park Fig. 1. Map over Koster provided by map is shown to the right with the red line representing personals at Tjarno marine biology the border of the marine national park. laboratory, Goteborg University. The Kosterhavets Marine National Park covers a variety of terrain. Fjords, terrestrial and marine based ecosystem are within the boundaries of the marine national park with 80% of its area are under water. The park has atleast 200 species of plants and animals that are unique to Koster. There are species of Porifera, Cnidaria, Annelida, Echiura, Arthropoda, Mollusca, Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Echinodermata, and Chordata, among others (Jonsson L.G. et al, 2004). The underwater profile of Koster vary between several meters deep in the inter-tidal zone up to more than 200 meters deep in the trenches, which also serves as the main shipping route from the South to the North, cutting through the Kosterhavets Marine National Park area, as shown on the dotted line in figure 1 (Bohuslän, 2009). The island itself contains several infrastructures to support the human population with some accommodation available for tourists. The island is almost 100% car free, making the island ideal for outdoor activities, which is appealing for outdoors-loving tourists, especially hikers and cyclers. There is also a daily public ferry service between Koster and Strömstad. 1.2 Prologue In the past, environmental concerns are mainly due to fishing where unsustainable fishing practices have led to a decline of corals and various marine life in the area. Today, however, Koster has become a symbol of sustainable fisheries, which have been widely practiced, partly due to the ongoing dialogue between fishermen and scientists in the region (Hambrey J., 2008). There is also a marine biology laboratory in the area (in Tjärnö), which will also serve as a visitor center for Kosterhavets Marine National Park. Now those problems regarding fisheries are limited, tourism is the next main environmental threat to be observed. The archipelago is almost 100% car free, the main pollutant emitters are from households, marine vessels, touristic accommodations and service centers. Since the area is underwater by more than 80% of its total area, the area is highly suitable for boating, especially during 1 summers (which is the main boating season) when the weather is not too cold and the water is not frozen. The human population within the area is 24000, with 1000 people living adjacent to the water. There are many summer houses in the area as well. The main vehicles used on the island are bicycles and boats. By Koster being a marine national park, with Norther Koster being a natural reserve and the area covering various types of prestine terrains, in combination with the fact that more than 80% of Kosterhavets Marine National Park’s area is underwater, Koster becomes a perfect boating destination during the summers. Furthermore, the existence of a shipping route and the fact that Koster is very close to Strömstad (a major boating destination) gives Koster the perfect condition to have heavy boat traffic. There have been very limited studies on the problems of recreational boating. Recreational boating has been seen by many as a not-so-environmental damaging activity, which is made more prominent by the lack of researches found and the need for this study to be conducted using several internet-based sources . Researches done by Liddle M.J. and Scorgie H.R.A. (1980) suggest recreational boating as the main environmental impact contributor of all water based activities towards the biota as a whole. Baden S. et al (2003) suggested causes of the rapid decline of Seagrass in the West coast of Sweden, notably the Skaggerak Sea area, to include recreational boating. Davenport J. and Davenport J.L. (2006) also highlighted the significance of boating when tourists come in mass. Pechsiri J.S. (2006) also emphasizes boating related activities’ impacts on coastal environments. From these findings, it was concluded that the main aim of this project is to investigate the environmental implications of recreational boating, to provide enough information for decision makers to take into consideration of environmental problems of recreational boating when creating policies. In this study, there are 8 main chapters. The aims and objectives will be discussed in the next in this chapter. Chapter 2 will discuss the framework required to comprehend the environmental implications of recreational boating through making past literature reviews, and observe past works that have studied the environmental impacts of recreational boating. Chapter 3 will demonstrate the main conceptual methodology and framework used in this study. Chapter 4 will show the results of literature searches, data collection, and on site observations to demonstrate the environmental implications of recreational boating. Chapter 5 will discuss the uncertainties and problems that occur in this study and how they can be improved in future studies. The project will finally conclude itself in chapter 6. The acknowledgement, showing the people who have contributed in providing information and expertise for the completion of the project, will be shown in chapter 7. The references can be found in Chapter 8, which is followed by 3 more appendixes that contain necessary information vital to calculations required in this study. 1.3 Aims, Objectives, Scopes, and Boundaries The ultimate aim of this project is to semi quantitatively investigate the environmental implications of recreational boating. The impacts will not only observe the direct impacts of 2 recreational boating but identify the causes, the factors that facilitate the impacts which are important for predicting the distribution, the magnitude, and the secondary impacts. In order to fulfill the ultimate aim, several objectives are to be fulfilled. The objectives are as follows: • To inventory the causes, processes, of impacts that occur due to recreational boat. • To investigate various emissions or environmental impacts semi quantitatively. If quantitative data becomes unfeasible, then qualitative investigation will be applied. • It is well established that a lot of boats used internal combustion engines to operate. This often leads the production of NOx, which has many environmental problems. Hence environmental related problems of NOx should be investigated and the quantification of NOx must be achieved, atleast semi quantitatively. • If there are any uncertainties within the emissions, i.e. differences in emission factors used by various institutions, and if possible then the reason behind the differences should be investigated. This is to promote a clearer perspective of the environmental implications of recreational boating. • Any emissions are found should be further investigated to understand the environmental implications of that particular emission and how various factors