Deltas in the Anthropocene Edited by Robert J. Nicholls · W. Neil Adger Craig W. Hutton · Susan E. Hanson Deltas in the Anthropocene Robert J. Nicholls · W. Neil Adger · Craig W. Hutton · Susan E. Hanson Editors Deltas in the Anthropocene Editors Robert J. Nicholls W. Neil Adger School of Engineering Geography, College of Life University of Southampton and Environmental Sciences Southampton, UK University of Exeter Exeter, UK Craig W. Hutton GeoData Institute, Geography Susan E. Hanson and Environmental Science School of Engineering University of Southampton University of Southampton Southampton, UK Southampton, UK ISBN 978-3-030-23516-1 ISBN 978-3-030-23517-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23517-8 © Te Editor(s) (if applicable) and Te Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2020. Tis book is an open access publication. 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Cover credit: Shamim Shorif Susom/EyeEm/Alamy Images Tis Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG Te registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland We dedicate this book to our DECCMA colleague Dr. Asish Kumar Ghosh, who passed away in April 2018 at the age of 80 years. Dr. Ghosh founded the Centre for Environment and Development, Kolkata and was Director of the Zoological Survey of India. He served the Government of India for more than two decades under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, was a Fulbright scholar, and led the Indian del- egation to the original Ramsar Convention in Japan. He was instrumental in reintroducing salt-tolerant rice varieties in the Indian Sundarbans after Cyclone Aila. Dr. Ghosh had a lifelong commitment to the environment, biodiversity, and human rights in India and throughout South Asia and shared his great knowledge and wisdom with both students and colleagues, many of whom have contributed to this volume. Foreword Tis book provides a quality excursion into one of the hottest topics in environmental research. Deltas have historically ofered up a rich potential in the maintenance of coastal biodiversity, and fow regulation between the landscape and the coastal ocean. Deltas remain a key envi- ronment for human development and support. Te 600 million habit- ants, now living or working on deltas, face the looming threat of global sea-level rise due to climate change. More local coastal subsidence, related to water extraction (urban consumption, irrigation, and indus- trialisation), peat oxidation, and petroleum mining, further compounds the impact of a rising global ocean. Deltas are key engines of the global economy, and the destination of the largest migration of humans in history. Once the world’s rice bowls, many deltas have been transformed into protein bowls, with new aquaculture infrastructure increasing the ecosystem services that they can render. To accomplish this feat, deforestation in the coastal zone (global loss of mangrove forests) has often been the result. And with the removal of coastal forests, the extent of storm surge inunda- tion has increased, putting ever more of delta-citizens at risk. Further, vii viii Foreword marine inundation increases the risk of salinisation leading to deple- tion of agricultural soil and freshwater marshes, and thus a reduction in biodiversity. Tere is a direct link between how a particular delta functioned in 1950, at the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch, and its subsequent transformation with a rapidly increasing population. Over the last 65 years, megacities (10+ million residents) have sprung up on deltas, worldwide, increasing the need to protect these cities behind artifcial barriers, or face reverse migration of delta, or both. Already ofcials in Bangkok and Jakarta, have developed plans to consider such a costly endeavour. Deltas in the Anthropocene brings together a very large cast of researchers, to deal with the major issues concerning: (1) the Ganga- Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta of Bangladesh and India, (2) the Mahanadi Delta of India, and (3) the Volta Delta of Ghana. Quite often, insights from studies on other deltas of the world are discussed for comparison and guidance when discussing policy implications (e.g., livelihoods, housing infrastructure, health, and the impacts of gender on migra- tion). Analysis includes socio-economic investigations into the tem- poral trends and spatial heterogeneity of the key factors afecting each delta, including the application of integrated modelling to make sense of the complexity underpinning each environmental system. Often the authors take the position that future natural fows are being replaced by human-controlled fows, whether one tracks water, sediment, food production, and so on. Tis suggests that deltas in these three delta regions will continue their transition towards a human-controlled, or Anthropogenic, environment. I grew up living on a delta. My memories include the fatness of their topography; the profusion of seasonal bugs and fies that lived around the swamps, marshes and delta lakes; foods that would so scare us that we would often rethink our habitat; the rapid and historic growth of infrastructure and other forms of delta taming; and, of course, sand and mud everywhere. Huge volumes of agricultural and forestry goods, min- erals, and manufactured goods were always being ofoaded or loaded onto ships. Te poorest people lived in the worse parts of the delta; the richest people always seemed to fnd highland for views and security. Foreword ix Later in life, as I travelled the world, often with the opportunity to visit or study the local delta(s), I continued to explore how deltas func- tioned. It became clear to me, that any investigation of a modern delta, without accounting for their past and future human modifcations, would miss the “story” of the delta. I also realised how there is a never- ending tension between the uplanders (those that lived upstream of the delta), and the lowlanders, the delta inhabitants. Uplanders considered deltas simply as home to valuable ports to distribute their upland goods onto other parts of the world economy. Not much thought was ever given to the impact of upstream dam building, for example, on a delta’s coastal environment. Trapping of sediment in upstream reservoirs, and the subsequent erosion on a delta’s shoreline, were not part of the gen- eral conversation. We can do better, and it is not too late to start having the very important discussion on the governance and function of our world’s deltas. I am so pleased that Canada’s International Development and Research Center (IDRC) teamed up with the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) to create the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia or CARIAA pro- gramme that underwrote some of the important funding to support the book’s contents. As an advisor to the CARIAA programme, I watched the progress of key aspects of the book’s content. I am extremely pleased with the results that have broadened my own ability to contextualise deltaic environments in the Anthropocene. What makes this particu- lar book on deltas exceptional, is that the researchers are largely from Ghana, India, and Bangladesh. A unique perspective is thus provided. I have known the book’s lead Editor, Robert J. Nicholls, for many years, having followed his applied science approach to issues related to coastal environmental science. Tis efort will no doubt be another feather in his cap, but also for his co-editors Neil Adger, Craig W. Hutton, and Susan E. Hanson. Tey have done an exceptional job, as have all 60 contributors. For those wanting a heads up on modern envi- ronmental science, this text has much to ofer. Boulder, CO, USA Jaia Syvitski University of Colorado Acknowledgements Tis book is the culmination of a major interdisciplinary research collaboration across biophysical and social sciences focussed on del- tas. Te collaboration has been facilitated through a major consor- tium funded between 2014 and 2018: the “Deltas, vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation” (DECCMA) project (IDRC 107642) under the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) programme with fnancial support from the UK Government’s Department for International Development and the International Development Research Centre, Canada. We thank them for this funding and their support, including making this book an open access publication.