The Korean tidal flat systems: Toward transformation from land reclamation to wetland protection

摘要

The present special issue entitled 'The Korean tidal flat systems: Ecosystem, land reclamation and struggle for protection' provides an earnest treatment of key issues on the Korean tidal flat systems, highlighting the perspectives of ecology, human use and management. The western coast of the Korean peninsula, pertinent to the eastern part of the Yellow Sea, also known as the West Sea, has long stretches of tidal flats along a ria-type coastline with numerous indented bays. The Korean tidal flat systems meet coastal mountains directly on the coast in many places and therefore create a unique landscape which is quite different from the opposite shores of the Yellow Sea (i.e., the coast of Jiangsu Province) or the Wadden Sea in northwestern Europe where the coastal plains recede deep into the mainland.