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ReefLink Database

Shelter

Shelter

Shelter includes sectors that provide for the comfort and protection of humans in relation to their living spaces. Subsectors include housing, textiles and apparel, household and landscaping services, and building and home construction.

CMap

Building and Home Construction includes sectors that construct commercial buildings and residences, and may include new construction, additions, or alterations. City planning refers to the development of guidelines, integrating landuse and transportation planning, to improve the economic, social, and structural functioning of cities. Construction codes and regulations control the location, number, and development of construction projects, including buildings, homes, and coastal structures. Contact Uses, such as biological additions, physical damage, and biological harvesting, are activities in which humans create pressures through direct contact with the ecosystem. Discharge limitations are responses to regulate and control the discharge of pollutants and the use of chemicals. Dredging is the process of excavating material from an area to maintain ship channels and harbors for safe navigation. Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems . Housing is a subsector of the Shelter Sector. Infrastructural policies are responses, including zoning, codes, or regulations, that impact the distribution and functioning of socio-economic sectors that provide infrastructure. Landscape Changes are alterations of the natural landscape through human activities, including coastal development, shoreline armoring, impervious surfaces, deforestation, or soil disturbance, which can alter water flow patterns and lead to pollutant runoff into coastal systems. Landscape conservation and restoration refers to efforts to protect and restore disturbed natural landscapes, such as through hydroseeding or beach renourishment. Household and Landscaping Services are subsectors that provide for the maintenance of homes, buildings, and urban landscapes. Landuse management pertains to responses that determine the use of land for development and construction. Manufacturing and trade regulations are laws and policies enacted to control production, distribution, and sale of goods and services. Non-point source pollution is runoff from diffuse sources that is caused by rainwater moving over and through the ground, carrying pollutants with it and depositing them in coastal waters. Permitting is documentation required for new construction and remodeling/renovation, in compliance with national, regional, and local zoning and building codes. The Reef Ecosystem includes a suite of abiotic variables that form the physical and chemical environment. Physical Damage to reef habitat and wetlands can occur from vessel groundings, dredging, trampling, boat movement, anchor drops, trawling, and fishing gear. Pressures are human activities that create stress on the environment. The state of the Reef Ecosystem is the condition, in terms of quantity and quality, of the abiotic and biotic components including physical, chemical, and biological variables. Reef Life is the abundance, distribution, and condition of the biological components of the coral reef ecosystem. Regulating Services are benefits obtained from ecosystem processes that regulate the environment, including erosion regulation, natural hazard regulation, and climate regulation. Responses are actions taken by groups or individuals in society and government to prevent, compensate, ameliorate or adapt to changes in Ecosystem Services or their perceived value. Shelter includes sectors that provide for the comfort and protection of humans in relation to their living spaces. Shoreline Protection is the attenuation of wave energy by reefs that protects coastal communities against shoreline erosion and flooding during storms, hurricanes, and tsunamis that can cause property damage and loss of life. Socio-Economic Drivers include the sectors that fulfill human needs for Food & Raw Materials, Water, Shelter, Health, Culture, and Security, and the Infrastructure that supports the sectors. Textiles and Apparel is a subsector of the Shelter Sector. Waterborne discharges include direct and indirect discharges of pollutants into the aquatic environment, including chemicals, nutrients, sediment, and pathogens.

CMap Description

The Shelter Sector creates pressures primarily through activities related to the construction and maintenance of homes and buildings. Landscape changes, including devegetation and soil disturbance can affect rates of non-point source runoff. Maintenance of homes and buildings may also include application of chemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides, which can run off into coastal waters, altering the levels of sediment, toxics, and nutrients within the physical & chemical environment. In coastal areas, development may require shoreline armoring or dredging activities, which can directly impact coastal vegetation and alter patterns of water flow. Homes and buildings benefit from shoreline protection, as well as indirectly from other ecosystem services that improve the well-being of sectors, such as tourism & recreation, which drive coastal development. City planning can reduce impacts of development by encouraging smart growth or low-impact development, or through use of construction codes, permitting, and zoning. Landscape restoration, such as hydroseeding, may be used to restore areas of significant vegetation loss.

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