Ella Walklate
Support structures within a Remedial Landscape
Masterplan connecting coastlines
This thesis builds on an existing remedial landscaping and proposes structures to engage human activity through tourism, education and remediation of eutrophication.
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The Baltic Sea suffers from Eutrophication. The 2019 UN Special report stated that the Baltic Sea is one of the world’s most polluted seas and eutrophication is seen as its greatest challenge.
Eutrophication is the enrichment of nutrients in an ecosystem. Excessive amounts of nutrients encourage the growth of algae and other aquatic plants, which in turns leads to multitude of negative effects such as extensive growth of algae blooms) and oxygen depletion in the sea.
The nutrients entering the Baltic sea have many different sources, but the majority are from anthropogenic activity. This thesis is concerned with understanding anthropogenic relationships with the Baltic sea and using these to establish a strategy of remediation within a public landscape. The island of Utö is one of the main seasonal tourist islands within the Stockholm Archipelago and is only accessible by boat through the Baltic Sea, therefore interest in keeping the sea healthy and accessible is paramount for the islands tourism and as well as access for permanent residents. Residents on the island have already taken remedial steps to reduce the amount of nutrients entering the Baltic sea through landscaping.
The new landscaping includes a man-made phosphorus capture pond and a flooded wetland basin with man-made dike to the that provides a new spawning environment for fish such as pike and perch. By increasing the population of predatory fish, the population of smaller fish is decreased and the levels of plankton increase. The Plankton break down the excessive algae helping to reduce the overall level of eutrophication. A new masterplan makes a connection between the two coastlines and new landscaping to support and educate visitors on the effects of eutrophication within the Baltic Sea.