Introduction to Coasts

Coasts provide resources such as fish and seafood. They are also the location of tourism and connect countries as the location of megacities and ports for global trade. Coastal disasters have remote causes, and coasts are vulnerable to threats from both land and ocean including: agriculture, industry, transport, recreational runoffs and wastes, erosion, oil spills, salt water intrusion, sea level rise, and natural disasters like storm surges. We can safeguard coastal ecosystems by minimizing human intervention and allowing the coastal systems to sustain itself, as well as through coastal engineering. Ecosystem-based management offers local, community-based solutions that integrate human needs at the coast with natural requirements for its solution, while coastal engineering offers technological solutions.

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