ABSTRACT

American scientific and political establishments were particularly active during this period and therefore they were able to influence coastal policy in many other parts of the world. A result of their influence consisted of focusing on the role of the decision-making process and, consequently, on concentrating on building up provisions and designing decision-making apparatuses. Ecological and social sciences gained importance later, especially during the 1990s, and triggered discussions on how effective inter-disciplinary co-operation might best be achieved when working with coastal systems, i.e. to use the inputs from a diverse range of disciplines as part of a synergistic process, not merely an additive one. This process has become so energetic as to justify the recognition of a ‘coastal science’ – a science inspired by the idea of the coastal area (or zone) as a complex spatial system; a science sensitive to non-Cartesian principles and keen to integrate multi-disciplinary approaches within it through adoption of a common epistemological and logical basis. For example, the International Charter on Ocean Geography, adopted by the International Geographical Union at the conclusion of its 1998 Conference (The Atlantic: Past, Present and Future), follows this design.