ABSTRACT
Coastal areas are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world, hosting an increasingly larger proportion of productive activities when compared with inland regions. Exploitation of these territories is causing great environmental challenges. In general terms, as we can learn from past decades, the choice to exploit coastal resources results in a reduction of a number of environmental goods and services, with a consequent risk of increasing natural hazards (for example floods, beach erosion, decreasing water quality and loss of biodiversity). Short-term economic benefits from lowland areas and exploitation of beaches have generated substantial long-term costs, with a consequent loss of ecosystem goods and services providing life support (POST, 2007).
