Daniele Spirandelli

Landscape change associated with urbanization in nearshore environments put the health of humans and ecosystems at risk.  Urbanization has increased significantly in coastal and nearshore areas accommodating larger proportions of people.  In U.S. coastal communities alone, population growth has increased by 33 million people, nearly a 28 percent jump between 1980 and 2003.  Coastal areas are unique places in their productivity, value, and fragility.  They are also unique places for people to live, play, work, navigate and experience.  These “living edges” have provided countless benefits to humans for millions of years, none as essential as providing an ecological niche where there are no major competing mammals and where local livelihood is intimately connected with the ecosystem (Walker, 1990).  Coastal areas are also attractive to tourists and outside fishing markets. While coastal areas are valuable places for residents, recreationists, and individuals whose livelihoods depend upon shellfish and local resources, these same people are faced with increasing risks to a host of pathogens, viruses, and toxins.  Water pollution is a significant threat to human health through the consumption of contaminated food or drinking water, the ingestion of recreational water and skin exposure to contaminants present in the coastal waters (Lipp et al. 2001).
My research interests involve three broad questions:

• What is known about the relationships between patterns of urban development, ecological integrity and human well-being in nearshore environments?
• What is the relative importance of land use, land cover, and wastewater infrastructure for nearshore conditions and shellfish habitat in an urbanizing region?
• When examining health risks that are elusive and mostly hidden from management efforts, such as non-point source pollution, are principles of complexity theory transformative to the contemporary risk assessment framework?