Introduction and Overview
R.K. Turner . W. Salomons
Coastal Management Principles and Practice
Coastal areas are currently experiencing intense and sustained environmental pressures fl;om a range of driving forces which have been increasing in their intensity over
many decades. Responsible agencies are seeking better ways of managing the causes
and consequences of the environmental change process in coastal zones. This volume
contains chapters which discuss the basic principles underpinning a more integrated
approach to coastal management, as well as other chapters which highlight practical
obstacles to its implementation in both developed and developing countries. Governments are now committed to the policy goal (variously defined) of sustainable development. But the fulfilment of the sub-goal of sustainable utilisation of coastal resources
via integrated management is likely to prove to be an especially difficult task. Any successful strategy will have to encompass all the elements of management from planning and design through financing and implementation. It also requires an interdisciplinary scientific and operational approach, combined with a more flexible and participatory institutional structure and emphasis to account for multiple stakeholders
and their different resource demands. The importance of historical, socio-economic,
cultural and ethical contexts should also be more fully recognized.
All coastal areas are facing a growing range of stresses and shocks, the scale of which
now pose threats to the resilience of both human and environmental coastal systems.
The pace and extent of change in coastal areas is controlled by an increasingly complex set of biogeochemical and socio-economic interrelationships and feedbacks, such
that some analysts referto the concept of coevolution in their analysis of coastal problems (Turner et al. 1996). In order to scope the many issues, problems and arguments
surrounding the scientific analysis, valuation and management of coastal areas, a simplified organisational and auditing framework can prove useful. In this volume such a
framework, the Pressure-State-Impact-Response (P-S-I-R) approach (Fig. 0.1), has been
adopted to underpin the various chapter contributions. The P-S-I -R approach although
simple is still flexible enough to be conceptually valid across a range of spatial scales.
It also highlights the dynamic characteristics of ecosystem and socio-economic system changes, involving multiple feedbacks within a possible co evolutionary process
(Turner et al. 1997).
Environmental pressure builds up via soCio-economic driving forces - demographic,
economic, institutional and technological - which cause changes in environmental
systems 'stakes'. These changes include increased nutrient, sediment and water fluxes
across drainage basins and into the marine environment; land cover and use changes,
fragmentation and degradation of habitats; pollution of soil, water and atmosphere;
and climate attention. The severity of some of the resulting damages is increased be-
R.K. Turner . W. Salomons
Coastal Management Principles and Practice
Coastal areas are currently experiencing intense and sustained environmental pressures fl;om a range of driving forces which have been increasing in their intensity over
many decades. Responsible agencies are seeking better ways of managing the causes
and consequences of the environmental change process in coastal zones. This volume
contains chapters which discuss the basic principles underpinning a more integrated
approach to coastal management, as well as other chapters which highlight practical
obstacles to its implementation in both developed and developing countries. Governments are now committed to the policy goal (variously defined) of sustainable development. But the fulfilment of the sub-goal of sustainable utilisation of coastal resources
via integrated management is likely to prove to be an especially difficult task. Any successful strategy will have to encompass all the elements of management from planning and design through financing and implementation. It also requires an interdisciplinary scientific and operational approach, combined with a more flexible and participatory institutional structure and emphasis to account for multiple stakeholders
and their different resource demands. The importance of historical, socio-economic,
cultural and ethical contexts should also be more fully recognized.
All coastal areas are facing a growing range of stresses and shocks, the scale of which
now pose threats to the resilience of both human and environmental coastal systems.
The pace and extent of change in coastal areas is controlled by an increasingly complex set of biogeochemical and socio-economic interrelationships and feedbacks, such
that some analysts referto the concept of coevolution in their analysis of coastal problems (Turner et al. 1996). In order to scope the many issues, problems and arguments
surrounding the scientific analysis, valuation and management of coastal areas, a simplified organisational and auditing framework can prove useful. In this volume such a
framework, the Pressure-State-Impact-Response (P-S-I-R) approach (Fig. 0.1), has been
adopted to underpin the various chapter contributions. The P-S-I -R approach although
simple is still flexible enough to be conceptually valid across a range of spatial scales.
It also highlights the dynamic characteristics of ecosystem and socio-economic system changes, involving multiple feedbacks within a possible co evolutionary process
(Turner et al. 1997).
Environmental pressure builds up via soCio-economic driving forces - demographic,
economic, institutional and technological - which cause changes in environmental
systems 'stakes'. These changes include increased nutrient, sediment and water fluxes
across drainage basins and into the marine environment; land cover and use changes,
fragmentation and degradation of habitats; pollution of soil, water and atmosphere;
and climate attention. The severity of some of the resulting damages is increased be-