Vaasa Rising from the Sea

Anyone for swimming?

While the coast of the UK is being constantly eroded by sea and weather, while spring tides and strong winds combine to create serious flooding risks in low-lying coastal areas, and London was forced to build the Thames Barrier in order to safeguard the capital and its hundreds of miles of tunnels - Vaasa is rising out of the sea. In geological terms, this is not a slow process either. The area around Vaasa is lifting by 8mm per year - that's a full 80cm each century. The beaches, of course, expand much more quickly, because the water is shallow and the slope is minor.

So, what does this mean in real terms? Well, beaurocratically it has been organised - as new land appears, local landholding associations have a system of distributing it fairly. But, if you own a beach-side property, it doesn't mean that the new strip by the water automatically belongs to you - tradition dictates that you merely get first option to buy it... if the association doesn't have other plans for it. If you consider it a good idea to buy a rock in the sea, and sit back and wait for it to grow into something bigger, all for nothing, think again. You don't automatically own that circular strip of new land either, probably just first options to buy!

In the past ten years in the Town Bay (Kaupunginlahti), the reed line which marks the end of the water and the beginning of the wetlands around the mouth of the Laihia river has progessed northward by well over five hundred metres. The river enters the wetlands through a straight, dredged channel, which used to be quite easy to find by boat. These days, especially once the reeds have grown tall through the summer months, finding this channel from the sea has become so difficult that it makes Humphrey Bogart's efforts with the African Queen seem almost like a picnic. This growth of reeds is further fuelled by nitrates washed into the bay from both the Laihia River, and down the drainage channels from Söderfjärden (a huge circular piece of farmland created by a meteor hit hundreds of thousands of years ago, and only recently recovered from the sea). In fact, if you take a walk around the mouth of the Laihia River, you will notice considerable evidence of human activity in the form of dykes, channels, pumps and plantations of birch trees; as much of this area has been reclaimed from the sea for farming and forestry.

A little further north you can see further evidence of the rising land. There are beach cottages no longer anywhere near the beach. There are saunas with jetties running out to water which is definitely not deep enough for swimming anymore. Vanha Vaasan Kanaali (Old Vaasa Canal) used to carry trading vessels to Vanhasatama (Old Harbour) - now I have to navigate its mouth with care in my rowing boat. On the north bank of this canal is Hamnviken (Harbour Bay); it is now a solid area of reeds, passable on foot, which is in the process of being reclaimed for industrial sites.

This photo shows the view down the last couple of hundred metres of the Vanha Vaasa Canal to where it exits into the sea in the distance.

A little further north still, and the shores of the little bay formed by the Ahvensaari (Perch Island) peninsula shall soon be host to the 2008 Housing Exhibition, much of it on an area which is currently shallow water and reeds. The names of many town areas give clues to the results of this land rise. Just have a look at the map, and particularly at the ends of area names - 'saari' means island, 'niemi' means peninsula. Ahvensaari is clearly no longer an island, Melaniemi is about three kilometres from the sea, Huutoniemi (shouting peninsula, which I am told is so named because you had to shout for the ferry to come and pick you up) equally far. The examples are endless.

What about the future? Although the land rise is slowing, it is not doing so at a speed which will concern ourselves or our grandchildren. In two-hundred years the Town Bay will be mostly land, with the Laihia River running through it to Sundom bridge, joined halfway by a channel from Söderfjärden. Kalaranta (fish beach) will have to be dredged to prevent it becoming yet another inland area with a strange name. Man, of course, will do a lot between then and now, but what should it be? Should the sea-entrances to the bay via Sundom Bridge and Vaskiluoto bridge be dammed to keep the water level of the bay, or should the river simply be channeled through to the bridge, with attractive walks along its banks - or what? What do you think?

Malcolm (editor)
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