By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The length of the western coastline has shrunk by 40 percent over the last 90 years, according to a state-run think tank Friday.
Excessive reclamation projects have straightened the indented geographical figure and damaged nearby ecosystems, the National Institute of Environment Research said.
According to comparisons made between maps and documents from the 1910s and those from the early 2000s, the total length of the shoreline between the mouth of Han River and Ttangkkeut Maeul in South Jeolla Province has shrunk by 40.3 percent, from 3,596 kilometers to 2,148 kilometers.
The institute said such a change has proliferated coastal erosion and worked as a major threat to the biodiversity of the region. ``The government built a breakwater at the Wunyeo seashore in South Chungcheong Province without considering the sand dunes. The sandy beach has been swept away by the waves and tide.
``The dramatic change of tides along the western seashore made mud flats, sand dunes and other distinctive environment features. But now they are disappearing,'' Seo Min-hwa, an institute staff member, said.
Reclamation projects to expand industrial and agricultural lands, roads and others were the first reason, he said.
``Only 20 percent of the land within 10 kilometers of the seashore is woods, while more than 50 percent is filled with factories or residential buildings. It gives so little space for the environment to breathe. We need to use one kilometer from the shore as a shock-absorbing zone,'' Seo said.