Socio-economic Response Strategies in Coastal Regions

This paper addresses the issue of possible land use strategies and responses in coastal zones as a consequence of global environmental change. It will first set out some key elements in global change that are of critical importance for the water and land management in such areas. Next, it will map out in more detail the various environmental and socio-economic repercussions of such megatrends. This will then be followed by a discussion of the necessity to develop proper coastal zone management policy strategies in order to cope with uncertain challenges. In particular, the research needs will be addressed. The paper will then illustrate the potential of integrated coastal zone dynamic and spatial modelling and evaluation, on the basis of an empirical case study for a coastal region. Furthermore, a number of spatio-economic scenarios related to sea level issues in the Netherlands will be presented. In this context also risk assessment is shortly discussed in relation to sea level rise. 1. Setting the Scene In the past decades coastal zones have become a focal point of policy interest. For example, in the years 1973-1993 already some 25 main European policy initiatives concerning coastal zone management have been formulated, reflected inter alia in resolutions, declarations, directives, task forces and recommendations (see Dobris, 1995). Most of these policy initiatives addressed issues like the environment or safety, with a particular view on the international governance of coastal areas (in terms of competence, liability or coordination). Much less attention has been devoted to the (socio-)economic potential of coastal zones as sources for balanced development opportunities, given the productive forces offered by the physical and geomorphological features of such areas. Only in recent years we observe more interest in coastal zone management with a focus on the functional synergy of land and water, as it is increasingly recognized that a significant part of our industrial world is located at or nearby coastal zones. Two-third of the surface of our earth is composed of sea waters and only one-third of land. The perimeter of the coastline on our earth reaches astronomical figures, viz. approximately 1 million km. It seems plausible that at least some 15 percent of the land surface on earth (or 5 percent of the total earth’ surface) may be coined a coastal zone. But this zone is the habitat for more than 60 percent of the world population; it is a concentration point of many industrial activities; it is a communication and transportation area for a large share of our goods and services; and it is a vulnerable ecosystem of an invaluable quality. A focus on coastal zones means essentially a focus on the most dynamic parts of our global economy and ecology (see Van der Plas 1996). A coastal zone is not only a nexus where land and sea meet; it is in particular a nexus where man tries to maximize the synergy offered by the significant difference in potential of two different ‘contact spaces’. This synergy explains why so many human and industrial activities are directly or indirectly connected with coastal zones. Such areas have in the past been of strategic importance and will continue to be focal points of living and working, as they offer a great multiplicity of complementary functions for a broad set of actors: 0 meeting and exchange place of different nations and cultures: the permeability function; 0 transshipment place for people and commodities from a long distance: the accessibility function; 17 location area for industrial and economic activities: the potentiality function; 0 settlement area for households: the habitat function; 0 a high quality of life area based on an enormous diversity in marine and terrestrial ecosystems: the nature function.