Human activities are often concentrated in coastal regions which are least able to assimilate those activities, and where adverse effects are most apparent. Coastal zones are relatively fragile ecosystems. Mounting pressure on the coastal zone environment, usually in multi-ownership, has resulted in a rapid decline in open spaces and ecosystems that quickly lead to a lack of space to accommodate human activities without significant harmful effects. Disordered urbanisation and development of infrastructure, alone, or in combination with uncoordinated industrial, and tourism-related activities, sea and land husbandry and military activities, can lead to rapid degradation of coastal habitats and community resources.
A working definition of a coastal zone is that part of the land affected by its proximity to the sea, and that part of the sea affected by its proximity to the land where human land-based activities have a measurable influence on water chemistry marine ecology and coastland habitats. Coastal Zone Management (CZM) initiatives are integrated strategies across barriers of ownership and land use, which attempt to balance the benefits from economic development and human benefits from the coastal space, while sustaining over the long-term, the ecological, socio-cultural, and historical values of a particular given area.
What follows is a simple educational mind map for a coastal zone management plan which sets out the partnership philosophy and the purposes of the integrated planning process. The idea is that it will enable comparisons of different coastal zone plans in a standard learning format.
Delivery through partnerships and projects