Coastal management: the

This simplified picture inevitably becomes more complex shifting to the regional scale, with ample variability from region to region. National coastal lengths range from 90,900 km (Canada) to a few kilometres in the case of some Balkan and Pacific island countries. Australia, the United States, Norway, Japan, Greece, the United Kingdom and New Zealand all boast coastlines of between 10,000 and 25,000 kilometres. If the extent of coastal areas is an indicator of the economic potential of states, it should be noted that, apart from Australia and New Zealand, the highest economic potential can be attributed to nations found in the temperate latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, where most developed regions are indeed found. Whilst countries such as Canada, Greenland and Russia are also endowed with more than 10,000 kilometres of coastline, their coastal areas, being largely located in sub-polar and polar latitudes, do not tend to be of such high economic importance.