ABSTRACT
Coasts are some of the most populated areas in the world, and the interaction between humans and the environment often throws the natural coastal system out of equilibrium. Management is required to mitigate against these human impacts on the environment and upon society. This chapter covers:
Hopefully this book, if nothing else, has imparted an appreciation of the sensitivity of coastal systems, and that intervening in one part of a system will have an effect on the whole system. Human activity at the coast invariably intervenes in coastal systems, often with detrimental impacts. In order to minimise these impacts, which affect both the natural environment and the intervening human population, coasts must be managed. Management is also concerned, however, with non-anthropogenic processes that affect coasts, but impede on human activity, such as wave attack and coastal erosion. Therefore, the aims of coastal management are to facilitate the human use of the coastal zone, but minimise the impacts of such human use, and to protect human interests at the coast from natural and human-related processes.
