Close to one-half of all Americans live in coastal counties. The resulting flood of wastewater, stormwater, and pollutants discharged into coastal waters is a major concern. This book offers a well-delineated approach to integrated coastal management beginning with wastewater and stormwater control. The committee presents an overview of current management practices and problems. The core of the volume is a detailed model for integrated coastal management, offering basic principles and methods, a direction for moving from general concerns to day-to-day activities, specific steps from goal setting through monitoring performance, and a base of scientific and technical information. Success stories from the Chesapeake and Santa Monica bays are included. The volume discusses potential barriers to integrated coastal management and how they may be overcome and suggests steps for introducing this concept into current programs and legislation. This practical volume will be important to anyone concerned about management of coastal waters: policymakers, resource and municipal managers, environmental professionals, concerned community groups, and researchers, as well as faculty and students in environmental studies.

Concepts and definitions; Coastal nations and subnational units; Coastal management; Coastal zone and coastal area; Shorelands and coastal uplands; Coastal resources, uses, and environments; Coastal systems; Coastal sectoral management or planning; Integrated planning; Integrated coastal zone management; Ocean management; Differences and commoanalities among coastal nations; Geographic disparities; Coastal resource value; Concentrations of development and population; Coastal orientation; Level of development; Existing or potential government powers in the coastal zone; Evolution of integrated coastal zone management: from concept to practice; Incipient awareness; Growing awareness; National study; New program creation; Program development, implementation, and evaluation; Coastal issues; Need for a global issues index; Impact issues; Hazard issues; Developmental needs; Organizational process problems; National listings; Surveying national issues; Major actors in coastal management; Well organized actors; Less organized actors; Management strategies; Governance arrangements; Program evaluation; Recommendations.

This book assesses the dimensions of our scientific knowledge as it applies to environmental problems in the coastal zone. The volume contains 10 papers that cover different aspects of science, management, and public policy concerning the coastal zone. A consensus is presented on several key issues confronting science for developing a more holistic approach in managing this region's intense human activities and important natural resources.

This book summarizes three symposia that were convened in the California, Gulf of Maine, and Gulf of Mexico regions to seek new ways to improve the use of science in coastal policymaking. The book recommends actions that could be taken by federal and state agencies and legislatures, local authorities, scientists, universities, the media, nongovernmental organizations, and the public to yield better coastal decisions and policies. It is unique in that it resulted from a partnership among natural scientists, social scientists, and policymakers.