Elsevier

Ecological Economics

Volume 63, Issues 2–3, 1 August 2007, Pages 319-330
Ecological Economics

Principles for sustainable governance of the coastal zone: In the context of coastal disasters

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.01.016Get rights and content

Abstract

As increasing numbers of the global population gravitate toward the coasts, pressure mounts on ecosystems and the infrastructure at coastal locations. In the coastal zone many problems have arisen, including coastal population growth and degradation of natural capital, from the neglect of the four capitals that enhance sustainability: natural, built, social and human. New strategies need to be devised that will allow coastal communities to continue to live in these regions without further degrading natural capital. The Brundtland Report initiated the idea of sustainability, which was further advanced at United Nations meetings in Stockholm (1972) and Rio de Janeiro (1992). Following these meetings and the adoption of Agenda 21, concern about growing pressures on the oceans lead to an Independent World Commission on the Oceans (IWCO) workshop where a number of Principles for Sustainable Governance of the Oceans (Costanza, R., Andrade, F., et al., 1998) were developed. In the light of recent coastal disasters such as the Indonesian Tsunami (2004) and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005), this paper examines the current problems inherent in the coastal zone and attempts to develop new principles for sustainability using the IWCO derived principles as a springboard.

Introduction

With approximately 41% of the world's population living within 100 km of the coast (Martinez et al., 2007-this issue) the importance of the coastal zone and issues of sustainability are at a paramount. If the trends observed between 1990 (2 billion people living within 100 km of the coast) and 2000 (2.3 billion) continue, the UN Population Division (2001) estimates that the number of people living on and around coastlines will increase to 3.1 billion people by 2025 (an ∼ 34% increase in population). This continued strain on the coastal zone calls for a set of principles for governance that will ensure its future sustainability, especially in the light of recent coastal disasters such as the Indonesian tsunami (2004) and Hurricane Katrina (2005).

Section snippets

The coastal zone

The coastal zone is not easily defined and it is of interest to government, coastal planners and managers, businesses, workers and residents. The boundaries of this zone may include both biophysical and policy-oriented definitions. The biophysical limitations of the zone may include any part of the land that interacts with tides, salinity, winds and biota of the land–sea interface (Davis and Fitzgerald, 2004). In some regions the coastal zone can be a few hundred meters wide. In others, the

Problems with the coastal zone

The coastal zone has unique interactions between its terrestrial and marine environments. It is precisely because of these unique interactions that the coast has challenging management issues and other problems. Increasing coastal populations, heightened pressure on coastal resources, and the real-estate premium of coastal land has created problems in the ways in which these competing uses are managed. The first step in creating a new paradigm with which to tackle these problems is to assess

Sustainable or desirable scale?

As a precursor to examining the Principles for Governance of the Coastal Zone it may be beneficial, using New Orleans as a case study, to consider what kind of scale is favored: sustainable or desirable scale.

Conceptually, desirable scale occurs when the diminishing marginal benefits of growth in built capital are equal to the rising marginal costs of the natural capital sacrificed to achieve that growth. Growth beyond this point diminishes the quality of life that can be sustained across

Paradigm shift

At present, in the political and economic arena, the market typically drives decision-making. We conjecture that sustainability can only be achieved with a shift in the existing political and particularly economic paradigm. Adaptation of Costanza's (2001) model regarding a new vision of the economy could provide the basis for a paradigm shift. The starting point for this paradigm shift could be that of a shared vision of the desired goal as envisioned by Weisbord (1993) and Weisbord and Janoff

Principles for governance of the coastal zone

In 1983 the United Nations appointed an international committee to propose strategies for sustainable development, ways in which to improve human quality of life without threatening the local and global environment in the long-term. “Our Common Future”, also known as the Brundtland Report, documented these strategies. United Nations Conferences in Stockholm (1972) and Rio de Janeiro (1992) considered “the need for a common outlook and for common principles to inspire and guide the peoples of

Conclusion

With increasing population growth and pressure on ecosystems within in the coastal zone, the importance of nations developing plans that promote sustainability becomes increasingly essential. In regions that are vulnerable to recurring coastal hazards, such as The Gulf Coast of the United States, developing and implementing sustainable and adaptive coastal management plans should be an imperative. The outlined principles can act as a framework for the development of these plans. Development of

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the helpful comments from Robert Costanza, Joshua Farley, Kenneth Bagstad, Apisom Intrawalan, Charles Kerchner and Jennifer Larsen.

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