ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the major issues, problems and opportunities in coastal management. Coastal management initiatives are usually a response to a demand to resolve problems such as conflicting uses of coastal resources, urbanisation, access, pollution and environmental degradation. Population growth in coastal areas has two main causes. First, it reflects the general trend of population growth in developing countries, linked to rural-urban migration; and second, the migration from inland areas to the coast, which often offers people more economic, social and recreational opportunities than inland areas The chapter draws two important conclusions. The first is that most, if not all, coastal management problems centre on the issue of conflict or trade-offs in a sea of uncertainty due to climate change. The second, and perhaps the key conclusion, is simply that coastal issues are now recognised as problems for which solutions must be sought.
