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Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Integrated coastal management planning strategies
Introduction
Throughout the twentieth century the economic significance of the coastal zones of seas and oceans steadily increased and according to expert forecasts will continue to increase in the twenty first century. Objective environmental, social and economic properties as well as formal geographic characteristics of the coastal zone confirm this assumption (see Table 1)
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Table 1 |
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Formal geographic |
Length of coastline – 587000 km Area of coastal zone (to a depth of 200 m) – 21,4 million km2 |
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Environmental |
977 national parks and zapovedniks Total protected area is 200 million hectares |
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Social |
Population 1000 million 60% of the world’s population lives within 100 km of the coast |
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Economic |
4493 million tons of traffic through seaports annually 86 million tons of fish caught annually 11,1 million tons of seafood harvested annually |
In accordance with Resolution № 1802 from the 55th session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council of August 8, 1973, “coastal zones… are among the most valuable properties of many countries, particularly developing countries”. Their geographic and climatic conditions being favourable for human life, coastal zones were the places of origin for many ancient civilizations. At present the coastal zone is acknowledged as the “golden region” of Europe. The USA Coastal Society considers coastal ecosystems as priceless and nonrenewable natural resource.
Exploitation of natural resources (including the use of coastal zone resources) in the twentieth century showed that there are two principle alternatives for economic development:
Almost all countries that have outlets to the sea, at present adhere to a policy of planned development, including coastal zone development. By the end of the twentieth century it had become evident that unplanned development and spontaneous regulation of interactions between components of a system of any kind (economic, ecologic, social, political, industrial etc.) or the complete absence of such regulation led to a situation where it was impossible to evaluate relationships between a system and its environment as well as relationships within the system. In this situation it is impossible to ensure that all factors that influence the function of the system have been taken into account when choosing the direction for its development and improvement. This is why management of coastal resources of any kind should include planning – a process of making decisions aimed at achievement of a certain objective – as a necessary element.
Today, the planning component of coastal zone management serves as an integrating factor providing for cooperation, mutual understanding and mutually beneficial collaboration of all stakeholders even if their positions, motives and visions are not otherwise in line. This integration contributes to:
The planning process requires analysis of large amounts of information about each of the subsystems shown in Figure 1. Underestimation of the role of any of the subsystems can lead to serious mistakes in the planning process. Each of the subsystems is very important and can be studied only by means of relevant scientific research.
Figure 1. Subsystems that need to be considered in the coastal zone planning process
