Transforming City Seascapes for Healthier People and Planet

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The edge of the sea is a strange
and beautiful place.
- Rachel Carson
Coastal cities sit on the edge
of an immense and dynamic
watery wilderness capable of
generating great intensity of
feeling and measurable benets
to our wellbeing. As societies
increasingly turn to the ocean for
solutions to sustainable living,
the characteristics of urban
seascapes that generate health
services are also beginning
to be considered an asset in
natural capital accounting. The
therapeutic value of coastal
seascapes, recognised for
millennia, is now experiencing
a resurgence in urban planning
through the desire to improve
city living and address health
inequalities.
Health-enabling places and
spaces where water (saltwater
or freshwater) is central to
promoting health and wellbeing
have been termed “blue spaces”
(Foley & Kistemann 2015).
Creation of blue spaces is an
important role of blue urbanism.
Public access to safe blue spaces
is a key enabler of “blue health’”
and a characteristic that has
been overlooked in modern
urban environments.
Much of the seascape of cities
has been obscured from view
or made inaccessible for many.
Engineered structures such as
walls, buildings, private real
estate, or exclusive zoning for
industrial use and transport
infrastructure such as harbours,
ports and airports have limited
BIOHPILIC CITIES JOURNAL / FEATURE
Transforming City Seascapes for
Healthier People and Planet
By Simon J. Pittman & Katherine Moseley
public access. The gentrication
of waterfronts often forms
barriers to inclusive access to the
ocean and is a challenge for blue
urbanism that seeks to create
greater opportunities for positive
ocean connections.
For many coastal cities with
historic ports, however, deep
maritime roots underpin their
evolution through centuries of
ocean-going trade and remain
intertwined with the city’s
cultural identity. At a meeting to
discuss the establishment of the
UK’s rst National Marine Park,
led by Plymouth, “Britain’s Ocean
City”, the City Council leader
Mr. Tudor Evans exclaimed:
“Plymouth wouldn’t be a city
of quarter of a million people
this far west if it weren’t for the
sea. The sea is in our DNA.” This
feeling and maritime identity is
likely echoed by many citizens of
historic port cities.
Coastal cities, however, continue
to have multifaceted and
largely negative impacts on
local ecosystems and the global
ocean. A desire for healthier
cities amid growing concerns
over pollution requires that
coastal cities develop innovative
ways to inspire and empower
communities and institutions
to embrace, enjoy and better
care for city seascapes. There is
nothing on Planet Ocean more
contested than the water and,
despite the remarkable diluting
and regenerative capacity of the
ocean, increasing exposure to
cumulative stress from human
activity has brought us to a
tipping point.
In an earlier article, we aimed to
advance blue urbanism in coastal
cities through an urgent global
Call for Action (The Ocean Cities
Pledge) (Pittman & Moseley
2019) to transition coastal cities
into healthier Ocean Cities.
Becoming an Ocean City requires
an active cultural shift through
transformative steps along a
blue urban pathway that both
nurtures emotional connection to
the ocean and its inhabitants and
elevates civic pride ultimately
leading to actions that create a
healthier city seascape. As well
as seeking a more harmonious
relationship between city and
ocean, these initiatives place
special emphasis upon the need
for safe and inclusive access
to the seaside and water for
the considerable benets to
public health and wellbeing.
Ocean-focused and community-
centred placemaking is a key
activity in the implementation
of blue urbanism and a nexus
for urban transformation of
coastal cities where considerable
new creative energy is being
directed worldwide (Beatley
2014). Here, we present our
thoughts and some evidence for
blue health benets associated
A spectacular and uplifting viewpoint
over Plymouth Sound, UK
Photo: Simon Pittman
Regeneration of a city beach park
in Plymouth, UK
Source: BlueHealth2020.eu
BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL VOL. 4, NO. 1 | MARCH 2021

with encounters with the ocean
and highlight some city-led
initiatives that show potential
for transforming urban coastal
space into blue space for greater
community wellbeing.
Therapeutic City Seascapes
There is a growing body of
evidence suggesting that time
spent in, or in view of, the ocean
can benet mental health and
enhance social cohesion and
resilience. Although the ocean
and coasts have long been
valued as restorative places
that promote vitality, it is only
relatively recently that blue
health has become a topic
of growing interest among
scientists, medical practitioners,
and policy makers around the
world. Several studies have
conrmed that a view of the sea
has mental health benets such
as lowering anxiety and the risk
of depression. In England, a
survey of 26,000 respondents
found that adults from the most
deprived areas closer (<1 km)
to the coast experienced the
greatest self-reported mental
health benets (Garrett et al.
2019).
Research suggests that activity-
based ocean therapies applying
principles of occupational
therapy are effective for
generating psycho-social
wellbeing in participants (Britton
et al. 2020). Wallace J. Nichols’
“blue mind” concept captures
the meditative state of mental
wellbeing induced by some
water-based activities. Wellbeing
has been found to be linked
to a diverse range of activities
(e.g., kayaking, swimming,
walking) and feelings (symbolic,
achievement-oriented, social and
immersive experience) (Bell et
al. 2015). Comparative studies
across a range of environments
have repeatedly shown that
blue spaces are among the most
restorative with people being
happiest in coastal environments
(White et al. 2020). Important
progress has been made to
strengthen the evidence base in
the eld of oceans and public
health by researchers at the
European Centre for Environment
and Human Health through
Projects such as BlueHealth and
SOPHIE (Seas, Oceans and Public
Health in Europe).
Blue Spirituality in Coastal Cities
Watery places have spiritual
power that has been recognised
throughout history by indigenous
and ancestral cultures, with
some sacred water sites
becoming places of pilgrimage
and remembrance. With the
sacredness of this interconnected
relationship comes
understanding, respect, and a
relatedness and reciprocity that
is restorative. In contrast, coastal
cities have rapidly departed from
reverence for the ocean while
building their relationship with
the water upon economic and
recreational needs that fail to
adequately safeguard ecological
integrity. Coastal cities as a
global collective have become
dissociated from the essential
life-giving properties of clean
water and air and increasingly
struggle to accept the inevitable
need to transition to a way of
living that is more harmonious
with the local and global living
system.
The climate and biodiversity
crises are shining the light on
cities and catalysing change.
Water carers of all kinds are
emerging, from activists to
scientists and city leaders, to
acknowledge their kinship with
watery places by pledging their
commitment to its health and
vitality. There is a movement
towards a reconnection to the
“ecological self” that is knowingly,
or unknowingly, being manifested
in pockets of activity in and
around coastal cities. A step
towards reconnection with our
ecological self and an integration
of spiritual environmentalism,
rooted in animistic and biophilic
philosophy, is unfolding and
permeating into the legal
system through frameworks
such as Earth jurisprudence
and the granting of legal
rights of personhood to water
bodies (e.g., Whanganui River
in New Zealand). Although
legal protection is welcome
and necessary, ideally a new
relationship to the rest of the
natural world must be based
on responsibilities rather than
relying on legal rights.
Connecting to the Ocean through
Experience
Direct experience provides
opportunities to form an
emotional connection with the
ocean and its inhabitants and
to build a healthy relationship.
Enabling such opportunities
should be an important function
of blue urbanism. Encountering
marine life, especially large
charismatic species, is
captivating, often joyful and
creates great excitement whether
a eeting glimpse of a seal in
Plymouth Sound, a rare visit from
a pod of orcas in Vancouver’s
False Creek, the majesty of
humpback whales breaching in
New York Harbour, or manatees
cruising along an urban canal
in Miami. As a non-resident,
terrestrial observer of the ocean,
our visual experience is usually
focused on the ocean surface
with the vast three-dimensional
uid volume and seabed largely
unperceived. Yet, with the help
of technological innovation such
as internet-linked underwater
cameras we can livestream
marine life worldwide. With
immersive 3D virtual reality
seascapes augmented with
images of real marine life we can
become a virtual SCUBA diver to
explore beneath the surface.
Greater connection is likely
through participation in
community-based restoration
activities such as seagrass and
saltmarsh planting, beach clean
ups and citizen science projects
including marine monitoring
programmes. Enhancing ocean
literacy is key to blue urbanism.
City seascapes have great
potential for ocean exploration
yet are sometimes overlooked
in terms of the potential for
local education and outreach.
The creation of ocean schools,
or beach schools, (both digital
(e.g. Ocean School) and outdoor
(e.g. Beach School South West))
with regular school visits to the
seaside to learn about marine
life and the importance of
responsible ocean stewardship
will enrich coastal city living. In
Plymouth, the National Marine
Aquarium’s Ocean Conservation
Trust together with local
marine science institutions
and schools have created an
Ocean Curriculum with a strong
climate change component for
primary schools. In the Maldives,
the Parley Ocean School takes
an immersive approach to
inspire and empower the next
generation of ocean guardians.
Some early evidence suggests
that the emerging concept
of marine citizenship is most
strongly expressed through
sensory experience of the sea
and is associated with a marine
identity. Marine citizenship
recognises that individual
behaviour can impact the health
and management of the ocean
and seeks to encourage personal
environmental responsibility
and action together with a
commitment to learning more
about the ocean. A major
challenge in implementing
marine citizenship is the need
to understand the social drivers
resulting in active participation
with environmental stewardship,
which can be complex with
many different pathways to civic
engagement shaped by sense-
of-place, identity, empathy for
nature and a range of social
and emotional place meanings
(Enqvist et al. 2019).
A popular bay for year-round
swimming in Plymouth City, UK
Photo: Simon Pittman
BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL VOL. 4, NO. 1 | MARCH 2021

Urban Blue Acupuncture
Strategic placemaking techniques
have a hugely important
enabling role in blue urbanism
by shaping experiences of
blue space and promoting
connectivity between people and
the ocean. Placemaking of blue
spaces in coastal cities occurs
at a range of spatial scales from
large-scale urban regeneration
projects (e.g., Baltimore’s Inner
Harbor, USA or the new coastal
city park “Hellinikon Project” in
Athens, Greece) to small hyper-
localised treatments through
urban acupuncture. This strategy
views cities as living, breathing
organisms and pinpoints areas
in need of healing through the
creation of nely tuned small-
scale (and relatively inexpensive)
interventions that are interwoven
into the urban fabric. Co-
designed with community, these
interventions can create spaces
for mingling, observing, lingering,
educating, and celebrating, as
well as quiet places for private
solitary contemplation. The
intention is that small changes
can have disproportionately
large impacts on experience
and wellbeing, for example,
through changes to lighting,
seating, access to sea views, safe
and inclusive access over water
via boardwalks and slopes/
steps/lifts, biophilic design,
art installations, educational
material, and synergies with
connected neighbouring areas.
Thresholds and boundaries
where contrasting habitats meet
and create edge effects are
places of heightened fascination.
In coastal cities, where grey
meets blue, placemaking can
create safe, gentle, and accessible
spaces for encountering and
connecting with the ocean.
In Plymouth (UK), an urban
acupuncture approach was
used to encourage people to
use blue space at an inner-city
beach and coastal park in a
collaborative project involving
the local community, Plymouth
City Council, Devon Wildlife
Trust, and local researchers
(BlueHealth project) who
observed visitors and conducted
wellbeing questionnaires before
and after the intervention. The
project, which focussed on
creating perceivable possibilities
for action, built an open-air
amphitheatre on the water’s edge
at Teats Hill with direct access
to the foreshore together with
improvements to increase safety,
inclusive access, attractiveness,
and information on the site’s
cultural and biodiversity (Bell
et al. 2020). Structures such
as the amphitheatre provide
a suitable seaside venue to
celebrate with play, storytelling,
ritual, art, dance, and song and
indeed the regeneration resulted
in an immediate positive uplift
in life satisfaction, a measure
of wellbeing. Transdisciplinary
research involving communities,
urban planners, social scientists,
health practitioners and policy
makers will be needed to shape
health-promoting city seascapes.
City Marine Parks
The city marine park concept
is a collaborative community-
led marine park that celebrate
a city’s connection to the
marine environment and
encourage communities to
participate in activities that
deepen understanding, value,
care, and enjoyment of the
city seascape. A city marine
park is a holistic concept more
closely aligned with urban
social policy than conventional
marine conservation measures
and was designed to support
blue urban transformation
addressing multiple sustainable
development goals through
the development of healthy
interconnected land-sea
ecosystems. Regarding blue
space, a city marine park seeks
to enhance inclusive access
and responsible use of the
city seascape for the diverse
wellbeing benets for people
and ocean. A core aspiration of
the city marine park vision is
to create a positive feedback
circle that seeks to build and
strengthen positive relationships
between people and the city
seascape through initiatives
(e.g., educational, recreational,
commercial), campaigns and
park-friendly commerce.
The city marine park concept and
the declaration of the UK’s rst
city-led National Marine Park has
stimulated interest from coastal
communities in South Africa,
Brazil, and Canada. It is still early
days in the evolution of the
Plymouth Sound National Marine
Park, which since its declaration
at the end of 2019 has been
stalled by COVID-19 and has now
entered a two-year development
phase where stakeholders will
help to shape the future goals
and activities. Projects have
already commenced to restore
seagrass beds in the park and,
with support from the Blue
Marine Foundation, to track
shing gear from satellites to
retrieve nets and pots lost at
sea. The park designation has
helped to highlight Plymouth’s
commitment to the ocean and
perhaps forms a kind of city-
ocean reconciliatory process and
the beginnings of a way of giving
back.
In recent decades, cities have
turned their backs on the ocean
as industries and supply routes
diversied and bathing water
quality declined but are now
turning to face the ocean once
again with new curiosity and
appreciation and are looking
for new meaning and belief. Our
coastal cities must transition
now, with some urgency, to
become responsible ocean-
loving cities forging a healthier
relationship with the ocean,
receiving inspiration from the
ocean, and working in harmony
with the ocean, recognising that
we can only truly thrive if the
global ocean thrives rst.
It is a wholesome and necessary
thing for us to turn again to the
earth and in the contemplation of
her beauties to know the sense of
wonder and humility.
- Rachel Carson, The Sense of
Wonder
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Simon Pittman is a marine
ecologist at the University of
Plymouth and Director of Seascape
Analytics Ltd., a UK-based marine
science consultancy.
Katherine Moseley is a specialist
psychotherapist and eco-therapist
for the UK National Health Service.
BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL VOL. 4, NO. 1 | MARCH 2021