Coastal zone issues: a case study (Egypt)

Socio-economic and environmental issues for the coastal zone worldwide are identified and examined, as well as the corresponding issues in Egypt. Coastal zones have been greatly exploited by man for establishment and growth of industry, resource extraction, tourism and urbanization, which have led to a multitude of negative environmental impacts such as accelerated erosion, deposition, eutrophication, destruction of marine life and overall decrease of bio-diversity. As coastal zone resources share common characteristics, they have to be managed integrally not in isolated way. This work surveyed the coastal zone issues and the proposed solutions in many countries. For this purpose, a classification for these issues is discussed illustrating various solution executed for each case. Moreover, Integrated coastal zone management and its extension around the world is surveyed. It is clear from the study that the successful finger-print in the coastal zone associated with applying the integrated coastal zone management strategies. Although many initiatives were adopted before to apply the integrated coastal zone management in Egypt, unfortunately, these trials were disappointing in its outcomes due to using top-down approach, lack of capacity, lack of stakeholder involvement, lack of integration, and lack of institutional arrangement for coastal management. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.