Increased urbanisation at the coast has led to greater demands on the coast. For example the percentage of houses along the coast of India has increased by 65%. This increase in housing has caused serious water contamination due to untreated sewage, litter pollution and over-fishing by locals.
The increase in tourism at the coast means a large increase in litter pollution. Litter pollution affects both the coast visually and the wildlife at the coast. Last September, in the UK there was a nation-wide survey of beach litter. A total of 185,482 pieces of litter were collected from 150 beaches. Four sources of litter were identified as the main culprits: tourist/recreational inputs (35%), fishing (12%), sewage related debris (7%) and shipping/galley waste (2%).
Agriculture
Agriculture is one of the most important land uses at the coast. Along with land reclamation, aquaculture and water abstraction it provides both a source of employment and food. The coast provides plenty of wildlife and resources, which humans can use to their advantage, but has detrimental effects on the coast.
Aquaculture has great potential for food production and the alleviation of poverty for people living in coastal areas, many of who are among the poorest in the world. For over 3,000 years, fish has been farmed in china, a country that continues to dominate the industry by producing 83% of the world’s aquaculture output. Other key producers include India (6%), Philippines (4%), Indonesia (3%), Republic of Korea (2%), and Bangladesh (1%), a list overwhelmingly concentrated in the developing world.
In many places, heavy fishing pressure and environmental problems have forced governments to limit or halt fishing until populations can recover. Over fishing transforms marine ecosystems and also costs people jobs and income. Most of the world's commercially important fish species are fished to capacity or depleted. Valuable fishes that once furnished the livlihood of fishermen worldwide are nearly gone, replaced by species of much lower commercial value. Overfishing is a major problem in southern Denmark where the government is placing fishing restrictions.
An increasingly significant effect of intensive fish culture is eutrophication of the water surrounding rearing pens or the rivers recieving aquaculute effluent.In Scotland, an estimated 50,000 tonnes of untreated and contaminated waste generated from cage salmon farming goes directly into the sea, equivalent to the sewage of a population of up to three quaters of Scotland's population. Once the resulting algal blooms die, they settle to the bottom where their decompostion depletes the oxygen.
Another case study, which shows the demands agriculuture, puts on coastlines are in Ghana, Africa. On the Volta River they built a dam in 1961 which was called the Akosombo dam. When they built the dam they stopped the flow of sediment which went to the coastline. They built the dam for irrigation purposes, as there is only rainfall at certain times of the year. This made demands on the coasts of the neighbouring countries Togo and Benin. Since the dam was built the beachs in these countries have totally disappeared as the sediment has stopped coming to them to prevent tem from being washed away. This is not the only demand as from then every year since there has been metres of land being washed away by the sea. In 1984 this led to a 100m stretch of raodway being destroyed and washed away.
Industry
There are many major settlements along the coastlines accross the world. With these major setllements comes a large percentage of industry. Industry at the coast is more beneficial to bussineses because of the use of ports to import and export goods. A major import for most countries is oil which not properly transported can lead to serious problems at sea. Oil spills are a diaster to both the wildlife at the coast and to the coast itself. The effects of oil pollution at the coast are;
+Exposed sand and shingle beaches are generally self-cleaning since there are large movements of the substrate band and because they are not biologically rich, they are best left uncleaned.
+Exposed rocky shores generally have solid rock and large bolulders substrates and are generally self cleaning. In addition the animals forming the communities living there are adapted to ragged conditions in a variety of ways. They recover quickly from major damage, mostly by recruitment of new organisms from outside. They are best left uncleaned. Recovery usually takes 3-4 years.
+Sheltered rocky shores are not self cleaning habitats and are slow to recover from major damage. They may require the removal of as much oil as possible but disperants are best avoided. Public pressure may demand a clean-up despite the damage caused. Recovery usually takes 5-10 years.
+Sheltered sands and silts are not self cleaning and are difficult to tackle. They are biologically rich and are best protected as far as possible using booms.
Oil spills also affect wildlife, in the coastal waters from Broome in Western Australia to Moreton Bay in Queensland, a large population of Sea Cows inhabit this region. Sea Cows have smooth skin surfaces and are less likely to suffer from skin adherence. Oil tends to stick to the pledge or rough areas of an animals skin. If surfacing in slicks with the head out to breathe, Sea Cows may foul these sensory hairs and also get oil in thier eyes. This could cause inflamation and infections and affecting thier ability to feed and breed. Sea Cows also suffer from long term chronic effects such as liver problems if they consume oil droplets or oil-affected sea grasses.
In Tallinn, Denmark, 93% of its population along with its food, chemical and machinery industries is connected to the local biological treatment work plant where about 240,000m3 of untreated wastewater is discharged into sea each year. The demand this puts on the coastline is that it kills many species of wildlife including fish and other marine life and birds.
Dredging in the Harwich Harbour has had adverse effects on the coast. It has created increased erosion, which has been sustained by the regular removal of sediment from the harbour for disposal at sea. Dredging operations in a harbour may permit a saltwater intrusion travel further upstream than previously, increase long shore drift, change tidal range, tidal currents, move suspended sediment load and suspended sedimentation in areas away from the harbour.
Tourism and Leisure
Across Europe mainly the poorer countries such as Portugal, Turkey, and Greece rely on tourism as thier main encomic income. This increased tourism to these countries bring negative effects to their coasts. Most employment at the coasts are in the tourism sector, so the locals welcome the tourists but at the cost of damaging the coast.
Here is a case study of Jamaica where there is an increase in tourism each year for the past ten years. Coral reefs of Jamiaca had suffered damages from small boat anchors, boat groundings, sea sports and scuba diving. These tourism industry problems go hand in hand with erosion, oil spills, and over fishing. The degradation of coral reefs is important because they are to the marine world what tropical forests are to lofe on land. Now biologists are becoming concerned with the growing number of medium seized and large cruise ships which are filled with people visiting the Carribean. Many of those ships, when entering such environmentally sensitive areas inflict serious damage to coral reefs with thier anchors and anchor chains. So, not only do these ships cause damage, they also bring in tourists who congest and crowd beaches, also leading to coral breakage and other damages.
A more local case study is Ireland were during the 1970's there was a 600% increase in day trips to the west coast. This dramatic surge in tourists resulted in the need for infrastructure and accomodation suitable for such an increase in tourists. This has changed the shape of our coastline and conflicted with natural processes in coastal areas.
Tourism also brings another demand to the coast through waste disposal. In Sapporo, Japan the beaches have become so badly polluted that the local government have placed a limited number of tourists at each resort.
In our desire to live near the coast, we are destroying or degrading the very resources that make coastal areas so valuable and enjoyable. Currently, nearly two-thirds of the worlds population-some 3.9 billion people-live along the coast or within 160 kilometres of a coast. By 2025, its estimated that 75%, or 6.2 billion people will reside on or near coastal areas. So i conclude that these four factors are making demands too great for coastal areas. Unless these factors are addressed then the state of coastal regions will detiorate. Tourism is a major affect and can be cut down with carefull planning from the government. The other three are harder to tackle and will take time to address.
