Long Term Perspective In Coastal Zone Development

From February 2004 until December 2007 the ComCoast project (Combined Fu- tions in Coastal Defence Zones) was carried out within the Interreg IIIB framework. The objective of this project was to investigate and to test the options for spatial coastal protection concepts. The mission statement of the project over its entire duration was: A wider approach in coastal thinking. I was glad to be part of this project and would like to thank all my European colleagues for the constructive and cooperative atmosphere. Firstly, I would like to express my thanks to Prof. Dr. Horst Sterr and Prof. Dr. Hans Kunz who assisted me over these years with their thorough guidance and comprehensive expertise and for many in-depth discussions on the focus of this dissertation. Secondly, I would like to thank my colleague Dr. Jur ̈ gen Meyerdirks, who acted as my key scienti c sparring partner over the last two years, and who continuously demonstrated his ability to bring me back to earth. Additionally, I would like to thank my colleague Dr. Thomas Klenke, who gave me the chance to be part of a challenging European project consortium and who supported me with his expertise on the project and the dissertation. Furthermore, I would like to express my special thanks to Gerard McGovern, who thoroughly improved my English.

Anthropogenic transformation of the coastal zone continues at a steady pace, especially in the developing maritime countries, where coastal resources are often crucial to national economies. However, exploitation of these resources is often indiscriminate, ill planned, or carried out without adequate scientific knowledge. This leads to rapid resource depletion, and often irreversible environmental degradation. The 1992 Rio de Janeiro UN Conference on Environment and Development recognized the expediency of an integrated and sustainable use of all coastal resources, functions and services grounded on sound scientific data. The present volume is based on the 1994 international workshop Integrated Coastal Zone Management, and brings together contributions by leading specialists both on basic concepts and on applications of coastal management. The work is divided into six parts, dealing with the conceptual framework of ICZM; regional and global aspects of coastal management; environmental assessment in ICZM; capacity building and technology transfer; monitoring and environmental analysis; and case studies and status of ICZM plans. The book also incorporates an interactive ICZM planning module, COSMO, which can be of use in designing a management plan for a coast. Attention is also given to long-term environmental effects of present-day actions. It is hoped that COSMO will prove an additional learning tool for ICZM practitioners and enhance the value of the book. This work is intended to give a broad coverage of conceptual and technical aspects of ICZM, and will be of use to operational executives as well as students of ICZM, environmental economists, policy-makers and senior managers in the international development agencies and governmental and non-governmental organizations. It can be recommended as a textbook and as a reference work.

Part I provides guidance to planners and decision-makers, particularly in developing countries, on how an effective, long-term programme of coastal area management can be implemented within the overall framework of development planning. Part II focuses on the legislative and regulatory aspects, providing a range of examples of the kind of legislative and policy measures and approaches that have been or may be taken in different countries to deal with some specific issues.

The objective of coastal management is the preservation of coastal resources whilst simultaneously satisfying the sometimes conflicting interests and requirements of protection, development, usage and conservation. Given the ever increasing awareness of coastal planning and management on an integrated basis this volume compounds the general change in perspective.

An overview of the coordination of various requirements for coastal-zone use is provided in this book, offering examples and best practice. Although it focuses on European coastal zones, it also considers global and historical developments. Questions at the end of each chapter enable readers to test their understanding.

Significant changes are affecting coastlines around the world due to economic pressures and climate change. This book addresses the social, cultural and political context of the process of managed coastal realignment, the strategic abandonment of the coast, as a means of coping with these changes. With a specific focus on the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, Stuart Oliver analyses the cultural and social implications of managed retreat and proposes managed realignment as a practical way in which society can rethink itself, addressing the new realities of the environment and a move towards developing a more sustainable relationship with it.

Ocean development has conventionally been targeted at the exploitation of natural resources, however this trend is gradually changing: Ocean space has itself come to be regarded as a precious resource. Since problems associated with energy, food supply, and population will become even more crucial over the coming years, ocean space is being reevaluated as a means for providing solutions in many of these areas. The future prosperity of mankind will to a large measure be dependent on the manner in which the resources of the oceans are utilized. To develop ocean space effectively, international cooperation is essential since a global perspective is paramount. It is on this basis of cooperation and communication that the present symposium was organized, bringing together experts from all over the world to report current findings in ocean development and to consider areas of future research. The material covered here deals with all aspects of these areas which are now of such of vital importance.

This companion volume focuses on the application and practical ramifications of Indian ethics. Here Indian dharma ethics is moved from its preeminent religious origins and classical metaethical proclivity to, what Kant would call, practical reason – or in Aristotle’s poignant terms, ēhikos and phronēis –and in more modern parlance normative ethics. Our study examines a wide range of social and normative challenges facing people in such diverse areas as women’s rights, infant ethics, politics, law, justice, bioethics and ecology. As a contemporary volume, it builds linkages between existing theories and emerging moral issues, problems and questions in today’s India in the global arena. The volume brings together contributions from some 40 philosophers and contemporary thinkers on practical ethics, exploring both the scope and boundaries or limits of ethics as applied to everyday and real-life concerns and socio-economic challenges facing India in the context of a troubled globalizing world. As such, this collection draws on multiple forms of writing and research, including narrative ethics, interviews, critical case studies and textual analyses. The book will be of interest to scholars, researchers and students of Indian philosophy, Indian ethics, women and infant issues, social justice, environmental ethics, bioethics, animal ethics and cross-cultural responses to dominant Western moral thought. It will also be useful to researchers working on the intersection of Gandhi, sustainability, ecology, theology, feminism, comparative philosophy and dharma studies.