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S. Shanmugam and M. Barnsley
activities, as well as geomorphological and biological processes, interact. Apart from
their economic and recreational importance, coastal zones assume significance for the
following reasons: a) there is often high diversity - both biodiversity and landscape
diversity - in a very small area; b) they are active in both geological and
geomorphological terms; and, c) they offer an important - quite often unique - habitat
for animals and plants. Owing to the increasing pressures on coastal areas in the form
of recreation, pollution and mineral extraction, the need for integrated coastal zone
management (ICZM) is increasingly evident. One of the main aims of ICZM is to
resolve the issues and conflicts relating to the various pressures outlined above, while
considering the requirements for nature and landscape conservation.
Issues of biodiversity and nature conservation are perhaps most pronounced
for dune systems, which form approximately 20% of the area occupied by world's
coastal landforms and which are especially rich in species of plants and animals.
Coastal dune systems also offer particularly suitable sites to study the ecological
significance of the life cycles and growth form of plants. This is because, unlike many
other terrestrial habitats, they frequently provide sites that are in a state of succession:
thus, they combine the special interests of a successional sequence and, because the
process of dune formation is often continuous, they may contain the earliest phase of
succession as a permanent feature of the area. These features not only make them areas
of special research interest, but have also led to some of them being categorized as
Protected Areas. Biodiversity, however, the key to ecological equilibrium, can only be
maintained in coastal dune systems where dune and vegetation succession are active
and ongoing. The over-stabilization of coastal dunes - often as much a problem as
erosion - leads to a loss of biodiversity
Accurate vegetation and habitat maps are essential prerequisites to an
improved understanding of the problems associated with dunal landscapes, to monitor
vegetation succession therein and, hence, to plan and institute effective conservation
and management programmes. They can form the basis of, and produce the spatial
dimension to, resource information systems and change-detection techniques.
Conventional surveying techniques and in situ measurements clearly have an
important role in producing such maps, but they are time-consuming, manpowerintensive and, hence, expensive C particularly in the context of long-term monitoring
programmes. For this reason, attention is increasingly being focussed on the use of
airborne and satellite remote sensing data, combined with the spatial analytical
capabilities of modern Geographical Information System (GIS) technology. Hartog et
al. (1992), for example, combined aerial photography and GIS to derive transition
matrices in a study of the succession of dune vegetation structure resulting from
changes in the level of ground-water in the Amsterdam Waterworks dunes. They
present ideas as to how these data can be used to analyse spatial patterns on the dune
surface and to model landscape succession. Similarly, Davis et al. (1994) provide an
account of the use of remotely-sensed images (Landsat-TM data and aerial
photographs) and GIS technology to characterise vegetation communities in south
western California. The authors demonstrate how a vector-based GIS, combined with
remotely-sensed data, can be used to produce improved landscape-ecological maps
S. Shanmugam and M. Barnsley
activities, as well as geomorphological and biological processes, interact. Apart from
their economic and recreational importance, coastal zones assume significance for the
following reasons: a) there is often high diversity - both biodiversity and landscape
diversity - in a very small area; b) they are active in both geological and
geomorphological terms; and, c) they offer an important - quite often unique - habitat
for animals and plants. Owing to the increasing pressures on coastal areas in the form
of recreation, pollution and mineral extraction, the need for integrated coastal zone
management (ICZM) is increasingly evident. One of the main aims of ICZM is to
resolve the issues and conflicts relating to the various pressures outlined above, while
considering the requirements for nature and landscape conservation.
Issues of biodiversity and nature conservation are perhaps most pronounced
for dune systems, which form approximately 20% of the area occupied by world's
coastal landforms and which are especially rich in species of plants and animals.
Coastal dune systems also offer particularly suitable sites to study the ecological
significance of the life cycles and growth form of plants. This is because, unlike many
other terrestrial habitats, they frequently provide sites that are in a state of succession:
thus, they combine the special interests of a successional sequence and, because the
process of dune formation is often continuous, they may contain the earliest phase of
succession as a permanent feature of the area. These features not only make them areas
of special research interest, but have also led to some of them being categorized as
Protected Areas. Biodiversity, however, the key to ecological equilibrium, can only be
maintained in coastal dune systems where dune and vegetation succession are active
and ongoing. The over-stabilization of coastal dunes - often as much a problem as
erosion - leads to a loss of biodiversity
Accurate vegetation and habitat maps are essential prerequisites to an
improved understanding of the problems associated with dunal landscapes, to monitor
vegetation succession therein and, hence, to plan and institute effective conservation
and management programmes. They can form the basis of, and produce the spatial
dimension to, resource information systems and change-detection techniques.
Conventional surveying techniques and in situ measurements clearly have an
important role in producing such maps, but they are time-consuming, manpowerintensive and, hence, expensive C particularly in the context of long-term monitoring
programmes. For this reason, attention is increasingly being focussed on the use of
airborne and satellite remote sensing data, combined with the spatial analytical
capabilities of modern Geographical Information System (GIS) technology. Hartog et
al. (1992), for example, combined aerial photography and GIS to derive transition
matrices in a study of the succession of dune vegetation structure resulting from
changes in the level of ground-water in the Amsterdam Waterworks dunes. They
present ideas as to how these data can be used to analyse spatial patterns on the dune
surface and to model landscape succession. Similarly, Davis et al. (1994) provide an
account of the use of remotely-sensed images (Landsat-TM data and aerial
photographs) and GIS technology to characterise vegetation communities in south
western California. The authors demonstrate how a vector-based GIS, combined with
remotely-sensed data, can be used to produce improved landscape-ecological maps