Aquatic Pollution and Coastal Management

Unit 13 : Coastal zone and anthropogenic activities

13.1.What is the Coastal Zone?
The coastal zone includes both the area of land subject to marine influences and the area of the sea subject to land influences. A more rigorous definition divides the coastal zone into three main components: the sea, the beach and the land behind the beach. The sea or offshore area extends from the low water mark seaward. This area covers the shallow marine habitats of the coast, such as the sea grasses and the coral reefs among others. The beach zone extends from the low water mark to the seaward edge of the coastal vegetation. The last component of the coastal zone is the adjoining coastal land. This zone extends landward for some distance from the end of the beach. As with all environmental systems, there are no clearly defined and universally accepted boundaries to the coastal zone. According to World Bank report coastal zone encompasses the land area within 60 km of the coast and the adjacent near shore waters