OCEAN SCIENCE

OCEAN SCIENCE 2020-06-17T22:18:20+00:00

The Surf & Nature Alliance is contributing to the international scientific community with innovative studies in the field of natural sciences applied to the conservation of natural heritage, from which, we have managed to create the first surfing reserves and long term legally protect some surf breaks.

TRIPLE ASSESSMENT OF SURFBREAKS

The innovative methodology for comprehensive evaluation of natural, cultural and use/management values.

Our scientific and technical method of Triple Assessment of Surfbreaks is an innovative and revolutionary methodology in coastal management, which substantially helps decision-making for the conservation and the empowerment of legal protection of a given area. Its current application is the result of 15 years of scientific research in projects of natural diversity.

While other methodologies focus their methodology on the justification of the economic impact of surfing in the area they propose to protect, Surf & Nature Alliance has a more wide-ranging evaluation, where a whole series of natural, cultural and coastal management values ​​take importance.

Developed in 2005, PH.D. González Trueba (University of Cantabria, Spain) & Dh.D. Serrano (University of Valladolid, Spain) published a new methodology for the evaluation of geomorphological heritage and geodiversity. In 2010 PH.D. González Trueba adapted this methodology known by the international scientific community in conservation of nature to the assessment and evaluation of hydrodiversity and breaks of interest for surfing. surf.

This methodology has been applied in the different National Programs of Protection of Surf Breaks we are currently developing in Spain and Latin America, for the creation of different Surf Reserves.

Yes. But we need to study the particularities of each case.

HIDRODIVERSITY

New concept for the international scientific community: Hydrodiversity as part of natural diversity, and waves as part of hydrodiversity are a heritage to be protected.

 

In 2007 Dr. González Trueba introduced the concept of hydrodiversity in the international scientific literature, a concept also explained in 2012 in the Manifesto for the Protection of Waves. Hydrodiversity refers to the natural diversity of the hydrosphere, that is, the diversity of natural elements of the aquatic environment. A river, a waterfall, a lake, a glacier, a wave or the oceans do not belong only to biodiversity or geodiversity. They have value as habitats or supports flora and fauna; they are also unique natural elements and with their own value and natural heritage. As such, they deserve to be inventoried, managed and legally preserved for future generations.

Within the conservation of nature, biodiversity has been a central object of attention. Flora and fauna have received special treatment from scientists, technicians, ecologists and politicians. However, in the history of the first protected natural areas, landscapes and elements outside the biotic world had a special value. In the USA, the waterfalls of the Niagara are neither part of the surrounding biodiversity or geodiversity. The rocky scape is not valued on its own. Instead, the waterfall, its spectacularity and scenic value, an aquatic element in movement is part of the hydrosphere. In surf science this concept can be of great interest for the patrimonialization of the waves, because it scientifically and technically justifies the need to value the waves as part of the natural diversity, that of the aquatic environment, hydrodiversity, and thus, be introduced in the inventories of natural heritage, and in the tools and management and conservation plans as a forest, a waterfall, a glacier or a mountain. The waves, besides being a resource capable of generating great economic benefits, are a heritage.

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