Assignment Abstract

The Question;

“Rises in sea levels could have a major impact upon communities in coastal and estuarine areas,” suggests the 2002 report, “The State of the Cornish Environment.” (www.cornwall.gov.uk)Discuss the likely impacts on the Cornish coastline and evaluate appropriate management techniques to contain the challenge.

The Abstract;

Sea level rise is not a phenomenon to be discussed but an event that requires action. The sea is a dynamic and unpredictable force, from which the coastline and its communities need to be protected: fact- the sea is intruding. The risks facing the global and local communities inhabiting the coastal zone are wide-ranging; flooding, erosion, increased frequency and ferocity of storm surges, and the threat to freshwater supplies from the encroachment of saline water inland. The coastline is a pressurised melting-pot of interests; social, economic and environmental. The often contradictory interests of coastal stakeholders are generally the first, in what can seem like a perpetual line of hurdles to effective management of the coastal zone. The UK has a non-statutory approach to the management of the coastal zone: there is no one authority to which responsibility for management is attributed; instead the sectoral nature of UK coastal zone management is seen as an impediment to efficient management.

The objective of this essay is to highlight the urgency for an integrated management system for the UK’s coastline. Its purpose is to not just stress the environmental impact on species and habitats, but also to focus on the socio-economic impacts on communities facing the threat of sea level rise. Climate change is an established and proven consequence of centuries of anthropogenic abuse of the world’s resources; it is now the turn of the world’s population to take responsibility and preserve the continued existence and prosperity of not only the world’s species and ecosystems but themselves.