Communities and Coastal Zone Management

Description

This book brings several important findings of the collaborative research by Kyoto University and University of Madras addressing some of the urgent research issues in the coastal zone management, with emphasis to community participation and risk communication. The research questions, includes:

1) How to enhance linkage of environment and disaster management through appropriate community based coastal zone management?
2) How to enhance community risk perception, and communicate it for effective actions for future tsunami disasters?

The relationship between human and environment is most pronounced in areas of human dependence on access to natural resources. Environmental resources are a critical part of the livelihoods of many people. Disaster management has its direct connotation to human environment. In the coastal areas, the disaster issues are very much related to the environmental degradation. The Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 has caused unprecedented damages to the local communities, destroying their lives and livelihoods. This disaster event affect the poor people the most by affecting their lives, properties and livelihoods, and also affect the natural and built environment. Therefore, by creating disaster resilient communities, it is possible to enhance environmental protection.

Topics Covered
• coastal zone management issues and community practices
• community based coastal management
• coastal conservation
• resource management
• disaster risk reduction experiences
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Reviews
…This book is one that should be read and understood by maritime policy makers, coastguard and naval officers. More enterprise at sea is being applied to so-called constabulary duties sometimes to the consternation of those demanding more aggressive means of applying political will. Nonetheless it is quite clear that unless coastal regions are carefully and intelligently managed, small infractions in these delicately balanced regions will escalate into bigger conflagrations. Community- based management systems applied in conjunction with those of the proven Integrated Coastal Zone Management techniques offer a way ahead to improve the security of people living in close proximity to the sea on the one hand and the prospects for the ecology and environment of coastal regions on the other. The editors and contributors to this extremely useful book deserve plaudits for their timely and highly useful endeavours. To read full review…

Peter Cozens, Senior Fellow, Centre for Strategic Studies, New Zealand Victoria University of Wellington

This book will help all interested and involved in coastal zone management with information of great value in protecting the lives and livelihoods of the fisher, farm and other families living along the coast. The book also provides guidelines to protect our major cities. Mumbai in particular will be endangered by sea level rise. We should also safeguard the Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Group of Islands.

M.S. Swaminathan, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), Chairman of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, UNESCO-Cousteau Professor in Ecotechnology for Asia

Readership: Practitioners, policy makers, researchers, goastguard, naval officers and students in coastal zone management and disaster risk reduction.