Defining Coastal Management

French, 1997

Coastal management - recent idea only started in 1992 at Rio Summit and with Government White paper on the topic

Coastline don't behave according to natural boundaries. behave due to physical process therefore hard to manage on a regional level - need national cohesion

In order to manage need to understand how people use and see the coast:

• Humanistic approach - tourism, industry, waste disposal, reclamation
• Environmental approach - looking at the impact of these factors on the natural environ

Spatial limits of CZM
Coastal zone - in broad terms, defined as the space in which terrestrial environments influence marine environments and vice versa

However this is complex with no agreed definition = depends who is defining it - political vs natural vs socio-economic limits 

Could be described with spatial limits:

• Cultural limits = towns
• Biological limits = habitats
• Physical limits = catchment
• Arbitrary limits = political/ local authority

CZM can cover as much land or sea as it needs to in order to protect an area - needs to be flexible like the coast and adapt to change

• This can't always work in reality - need local authority to enforce rules and regulations therefore need to compromise between local authority plan and management plan

Defining limits - landward

Many possibilities:

• All land under the influence of maritime climate  - i.e. all habitiats under marine influence
• Land in intertidal areas - doesn't include towns and people
• Boundary of the watershed or catchment
• Some arbitrary limit (political) - typically 2km inland or the limit of that local authority

Defining limits - seaward

Again, many possibilities:

• Foreshore of mean low water level - includes intertidal but not sub-tidal habitats and doesn't protect fishing areas
• Edge of continental shelf - limits of sed stores (however, some areas don't have recognised shelves such as North Sea and English Channel)
• Pre-determined water depth
• An arbitrary unit - an administrative boundary e.g. the limit of controlled waters, fishing rights…