A spatial approach to climate-resilient infrastructure in coastal social-ecological systems: The case of dumbeong in Goseong County, South Korea

• Published in: Environment international 2019-10, Vol.131, p.105032, Article 105032
• Main Authors: Kim, GoWoon, Kang, Wanmo, Lee, Dowon, Vaswani, Rahul Teku, Chon, Jinhyung
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural Irrigation - methods; Agriculture; Climate Change; Climate-resilient infrastructure; Coastal social-ecological systems; Conservation of Natural Resources; Droughts; Dumbeong; Ecosystem; Farmer-managed irrigation system; Forests; Humans; Republic of Korea; Resilience; Sociological Factors; Traditional ecological knowledge
• ISSN: 0160-4120; 1873-6750
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.105032

Sustainable landscape planning and management of coastal habitats has become an integral part of the global agenda due to anthroprogenic pressures and climate change-induced events. As an example of human-engineered infrastructure that enhances the sustainability and resilience of coastal social-ecological systems (SES), we have presented the dumbeong system, a farmer-engineered and managed irrigation system based on Korean traditional ecological knowledge. We analyzed the spatial relationship of dumbeongs with coastal landscape attributes and droughts in Goseong County in South Korea. We used generalized linear models (GLMs) to examine the effects of land cover and recent (2001–2010) standardized precipitation index (SPI) on the abundance of dumbeongs. Then, we projected near future (2020–2050) changes in the SPI-based drought risk for the dumbeong system using representative concentration pathway (RCP) climate scenarios. We found that forest and marine water areas have positive relations with dumbeong abundance, whereas SPI has a negative relation, indicating that the dumbeongs are more abundant in areas close to sea water and forests, and with higher incidences of drought. Derived climate change scenarios show that the study region will experience higher incidence of drought. Our findings provide empirical evidence for the dumbeong system as an effective community designed and driven adaptive response to local hydrological processes and climatic conditions, and as climate-resilient infrastructure that strengthens sustainability and resilience of coastal SES. Based on our findings, we provide recommendations for sustainable landscape management and optimal use of the dumbeong system in coastal regions. •Abundance of community irrigation ponds is positively related to forests and seawater.•Abundance of community irrigation ponds is negatively related to droughts.•Landscape approaches prove the spatial relations of human-engineered infrastructure.•Community managed irrigation systems can enhance resilience of coastal communities.•Dumbeongs need to be conserved to sustain climate resilience of coastal communities.