Coastal Planning and Management - Chapter 1 pptx

Chapter 1

Introduction

This chapter introduces the importance and uniqueness of the world’s

coastal areas, with a view to outlining the coastal issues and planning and

management tools described in later chapters. Several important terms,

including ‘coastal area’, ‘planning’ and ‘management’ are defined, and the

use of the terms ‘coastal area’ and ‘coastal zone’ is discussed. The

fundamentals of the approach taken in the book are described.

1.1 Coastal areas or coastal zones?

The boundary between the land and ocean is generally not a clearly defined

line on a map, but occurs through a gradual transitional region. The name

given to this transitional region is usually ‘coastal zone’ or ‘coastal area’. In

common English there is little distinction between zone or area, but in

coastal management there has been some debate as to the implied meanings

associated with zone, as used in ‘coastal zone management’. The debate

has focused on the implication that zone may imply that geographically

defined planning zones will be established and become the dominant part

of the coastal management process. This implication is not important in

many developed countries, where ‘coastal zone management’ is a phrase

commonly used to describe a variety of coastal programmes (OECD, 1992),

such as the US Coastal Zone Management Act (1972). But developing

countries often equate coastal zone with land-use or marine-park zoning

(Chapter 4). Although ‘coastal zone’ and ‘zoning within the coastal zone’

are clearly different, to avoid confusion many coastal management

initiatives use the description ‘coastal area’ (e.g. UNEP OCA/PAC, 1982;

Chua and Pauly, 1989).

Kaluwin (1996) describes the notion of delineating a zone or area as an

essentially western concept which places artificial boundaries on the

geographical extent of this transition. He considers it culturally

inappropriate for Pacific islands, where the coast has traditionally been

viewed as a transitional region between land and ocean; however, few

Copyright 1999 Taylor & Francis Group